China, U.S. in hacking blame war

• Tweet

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Responding to allegations China has hacked U.S. businesses, Chinese government officials claim the United States is behind cyberattacks on its military systems.

China's defense ministry says military systems were subjected to 144,000 attacks per month throughout 2012 and 63 percent of them came from the United States, CNET reported Thursday.

"The Defense Ministry and China Military Online websites have faced a serious threat from hacking attacks since they were established, and the number of hacks has risen steadily in recent years," ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement distributed by the Chinese government.

China's hacking allegations have come following accusations from security experts in the United States that the Chinese government has been behind online espionage attempts targeting private U.S. businesses.

China's defense ministry has denied the allegations, saying "the Chinese army has never supported any hackings."

Last month The New York Times claimed the Chinese government was responsible for hacking into the paper's network and stealing employees' passwords, and The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post later said they'd also been targeted in similar attacks.