Chinese officials are pushing back against claims that China was involved in the recent data breach that could affect up to four million current and former federal government employees.
U.S. officials believe China-based hackers are behind the cyberhacking of the Office of Personnel Management. The hacking, which was revealed Thursday, may impact every U.S. federal agency.
However, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington cautioned the U.S. against “jumping to conclusions” and making a “hypothetical accusation.”
It’s “not responsible and counterproductive,” said Zhu Haiquan, according to the official Chinese news outlet Xinhua. “Cyber attacks conducted across countries are hard to track and therefore the source of attacks is difficult to identify.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei also spoke out against the allegations during a Friday news briefing in Beijing.
“It’s irresponsible and unscientific to make conjectural, trumped-up allegations without deep investigation,” Lei said, according to the Associated Press.
Last May, then-Attorney General Eric Holder took a swing at the Chinese military for hacking. The Department of Justice indicted five members of the People’s Liberation Army for targeting six American companies from 2006 to 2014, the first indictments for cyber spying brought against a foreign power.
