May 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department warned on Thursday that China was capable of launching cyber attacks against critical infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines and rail systems, after researchers discovered a Chinese hacking group had been spying on such networks.
A multi-nation alert issued Wednesday revealed the Chinese cyber-espionage campaign had been aimed at military and government targets in the United States.
The Chinese government has rejected assertions that its spies are going after Western targets, calling the warning issued by the United States and its allies a “collective disinformation campaign.”
U.S. officials said they were still in the process of getting their arms around the threat.
“We’ve had at least one location that we didn’t know about since the hunt guide was released come forward with data and information,” Rob Joyce, the U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) cybersecurity director, told Reuters. The agency disclosed technical details earlier to help critical service providers detect the spying.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) separately said it was working to understand “the breadth of potential intrusions and associated impacts.”
That would help
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