Cyber security Photo: IC

The US not only launches cyberattacks against developing countries like China but also its allies in Europe, the Indo-Pacific region and the Five Eyes alliance, Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in comments on the Global Times' exclusive report exposing the evidence of the US monitoring 45 countries and regions for over a decade.

At Thursday's routine press briefing, Hua urged the US to stop and explain those activities, which she called "vicious" and "irresponsible." 

An elite hacking group under the US National Security Agency (NSA) was found to have been creating an advanced and covert backdoor that has been used to monitor 45 countries and regions for over a decade, the Global Times learned from a Beijing-based cybersecurity lab exclusively on Wednesday. 

Hua said that right now, the US has been actively launching multilateral cooperation related to cybersecurity in the name of helping those countries to raise their capabilities, which makes people wonder what the real intention of the US is, Hua said. 

China will adopt necessary measures to safeguard its interests and cybersecurity, Hua said. 

As the report, which the Global Times got from Qi An Pangu lab, showed the Equation - an elite hacking group affiliated with the NSA - has launched cyberattacks on telecommunications, scientific research and economic sectors for more than a decade in China. 

The Chinese cybersecurity company 360 earlier published a report exposing the large-scale cyberattacks launched by the US government's APTC39 hacker group against China, which may result in serious leakage of personal information, trade secrets and intellectual property, jeopardizing the security of China's key infrastructure.

It is worth mentioning that the US' attacks could be traced back to 2005 and last 2015 onward, "which makes us doubt if the US was sincere in fulfilling the cybersecurity consensus reached by China and the US in 2015," Hua noted. 

The US' intelligence act allows the US government to conduct large-scale indiscriminate theft of information and data around the world, Hua said, adding that Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks have disclosed eavesdropping of the US government on a global scale several years ago.

The disclosure from the latest report once again proves that even allies and partners of the US have not been spared from being targeted by the US. Its target range covers not only developing countries like China but also its European allies, members of the Indo-Pacific region and the Five Eyes alliance, Hua said. 

Experts from the lab told the Global Times that the "Telescreen," a top-of-the-line backdoor created by Equation, has been raging around the world for more than a decade, infiltrating 45 countries and regions including China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Spain and Italy, and involving 287 important institutional targets. 

Japan, though a victim itself, has also been used as a springboard to launch attacks on targets in other countries and regions.

Cyberspace is the homeland of humankind, and it is hoped that the US will act responsibly, and safeguard cybersecurity and peace with the international community through dialogue, Hua stressed.