Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of launching "advanced" cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.
Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
The NSA agents were identified by Xinhua as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have "repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on China's critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other enterprises."
It did not specify how the two American universities were involved.
The U.S. Embassy in China did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The detailed allegations come as the world's two largest economies spiral deeper into a trade war that has already spurred travel warnings for Chinese tourists going to the U.S. and halted imports of U.S. films into China.
"The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) launched cyber attacks against important industries such as energy, transportation, water conservancy, communications, and national defense research institutions in Heilongjiang province," Xinhua said, citing the Harbin city public security bureau.
The attacks had "the intention of sabotaging China's critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information," it added.
ANONYMOUS SERVERS
Xinhua said the NSA operations took place during the Winter Games and were "suspected of activating specific pre-installed backdoors" in Microsoft Windows operating systems on specific devices in Heilongjiang.
In order to cover its tracks, the NSA purchased IP addresses in different countries and "anonymously" rented a large number of network servers including in Europe and Asia," Xinhua said.
The NSA intended to use cyberattacks to steal the personal data of participating athletes, the news agency said, adding that the cyber attacks reached a peak from the first ice hockey game on February 3.
The attacks targeted information systems such as the Asian Winter Games registration system and stored "sensitive information about the identities of relevant personnel of the event," Xinhua said.
The U.S. routinely accuses Chinese state-backed hackers of launching attacks against its critical infrastructure and government bodies.
Last month, Washington announced indictments against a slew of alleged Chinese hackers who targeted the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, South Korea, India, and Indonesia.
Beijing denies all involvement in overseas cyber espionage.
After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organizations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behaviour.
In December, China said it found and dealt with two U.S. cyber attacks on Chinese tech firms to "steal trade secrets" since May 2023, but did not name the agency involved.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
16 Comments
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owzer
laughable. West Taiwan repeatedly steals from everybody.
lincolnman
When briefed by his National Security Adviser that China was accusing the US of launching cyber attacks against it, Trump asked; 'What is a cyber attack, is like like an STD or something"?
Blacklabel
And is it good if we cyberattack China?
Or is it bad? and why?
Wasabi
Maga does not know, attacking any country, is bad.
Bob Fosse
No.
Because provoking conflict is wrong.
And there are more of them and they are far better at it.
Asiaman7
You do the hokey pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!
TokyoLiving
Good old US..
As always..
gsa
A Japanese newspaper dared to publish an article depicting US as a bad guy, unheard! what is going on? Is this a tariff backlash?
garymalmgren
China along with Russia, North Korea and to a lesser extent Iran have been making probing cyber attacks and unreported full scale attacks against the US and other countries (Germany, Britain, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, and so ) for quite a while.
It was only a matter of time before the US would say, "Hey. look. We can flip a few switches (and more) too."
As for "use cyberattacks to steal the personal data of participating athletes,"
Hmm. Not sure where that one came from but, as usual, "Beijing denies all involvement in overseas cyber espionage."
We can all take that one with a grain of salt.
Peter14
So strange when the shoe is on the other foot. But it was bound to happen eventually. Trump is after all, going on about reciprocity.
Now China is getting a feeling for what it feels like to be violated via cyber intrusion. I doubt it will provide an epiphany and stop Chinese cyber attacks on others.
It seems like you can attack others via the internet freely and never have to face consequences no matter what you steal or damage, at least if it is a country doing it.
Strange the UN has not brought in international laws against cyber attacks. Slow getting to the party?
OssanAmerica
China really can't complain.
China has been linked to cyberattacks on the US, the following since 2023;
Volt Typhoon - attacks on US infrastructure
Salt Typggon - attacks on at least 9 US telecommunication companies
US Dept of the Treasury Hacks, Dec 2024
SugarGh0st RAT attack on US AI experts
Brass Typhoon - APT41/Barium
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/in-secret-meeting-china-acknowledged-role-in-u-s-infrastructure-hacks-c5ab37cb?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Harry_Gatto
How dare the US attempt to steal such sensitive, secret and potentially damaging information. China making itself look rather silly once again.
WoodyLee
It is going to get a lot uglier just sit back and relax,
theFu
I have no special inside knowledge, but the NSA doesn't care about athletes or "games". I've run corporate and govt computing systems for decades. I see attacks constantly from around the world, including thousands from Chinese Universities DAILY. The University attacks are pesky. Performed by low-end knowledge people, but they do fill the system logs, until our automated IDS starts blocking them completely.
Chinese organizations have been attacking US organizations (Feds, States, Utilities, businesses and any other connected systems for the last 20 yrs with tacit approval by the CCP. The amount of proof for these actions is overwhelming.
I hope the NSA quietly sneaks into Chinese infrastructure and core military support companies in China to ascertain capabilities and future plans. Honestly, that's their job. The US doesn't allow outside companies or Universities to remotely hack Chinese anything. It is illegal here, unlike in China where hacking entrepreneurs are constantly attacking anyone and everyone outside China to see what they can find, then bring that information back to sell to the CCP ... and commercial companies from their theft.
This is normal practice by all sorts of people and has been for at least the last 30 yrs. Heck, I used 20 VPSes in a different countries last week for some work needs specifically to disconnect traceability from my company or personal locations. Chinese cyber attacks do this too. I wouldn't expect the NSA to do anything less. I do it as well. Any IT professional should know how to do this.
The difference between what China does and what the US does is clear. The US infiltrates specific targets for defense purposes. Sorta like looking over the fence into your neighbors back yard. The US doesn't hire kids from "around" to do these things. They pay their own, federal employees, who are seeking defensive knowledge.
If the NSA wanted to bring down all of China's trains, ATC systems, utilities, and power grid, make no mistake, they can. I expect Russia and China both have people inside the US who can accomplish similar capabilities using physical attacks, if and when any war breaks out. For now, All three countries need to worry more about natural disasters and the evil squirrel squad, which is extremely adept at taking out power grids world-wide. POCBS events happen all the time. https://blog.nature.org/2019/10/29/fear-the-squirrel-how-wildlife-causes-major-power-outages/ BTW, nobody is saying that squirrels have been trained by anyone to take out power grids.
Also, just like Chinese University students with a little computing/networking knowledge may try to hack systems around the world, I would expect US University students might do the same things. That level of attack is easily blocked by any professional.
It is well-known that there's only 1 legal copy of MS-Windows inside China, so most of their computer failures are do to poor system maintenance and patching. Ok, so I'm joking a little, but not as much as you'd think. In 2019, MSFT said that only 244 copies of MS-Windows Vista were sold in China, total. Crazy, right?
Software piracy is strong in China and there are repercussions in not being a paying customer.
Legrande
Tit for tat surveillance and intelligence work is just a fact of foreign relations everyone does it
theFu
China has never done tit for tat cyber intelligence. Most countries do work that way, like looking over the fence into your neighbors back yard.
China doesn't just look. It watches constantly for the neighbor to go for a walk around the neighborhood, then runs inside the house, back yard, into the basement, attic, and storage buildings out back, rifling through everything to get everything possible from disabling the alarm system, to implanting cameras to watch every room of the neighbor's house later. And on the way out, they block the locks so they don't work anymore, making it easier for anyone to get back inside.
Additionally, China sells little, cheap, devices that provide a tiny convenience to be installed inside their neighbors home like web security cameras, that send data back to China constantly, where it is posted not just for the neighbor to see (over a smart phone app which also includes tracking, camera and audio capture), but to a location that the CCP intelligence can review and scrub for anything interesting. Most US homes and businesses have multiple Chinese-made spies inside them, usually at least 1 for each person.