China on Tuesday denied that it carried out a major cyber-attack against tech giant Microsoft. US, UK, New Zealand and had accused China of hacking Microsoft Exchange - a popular email platform used by companies worldwide.
The joint statement issued by these countries had accused the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) of undermining global stability and security. Responding to these allegations, the Chinese Embassy in Wellington called the accusations "groundless and irresponsible" The statement claimed that the communist country has always maintained that it opposes all forms of cyber-crime.
The Chinese embassy in Australia has also countered the claims by the Western nations, taking the offensive a statement by the embassy describing Washington as "the world champion of malicious cyber attacks" The Microsoft hack affected at least 30,000 organisations worldwide. The Exchange system powers the email of major corporations, small businesses and public bodies.
Microsoft had blamed a Chinese cyber-espionage group for exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange - which allowed hackers to remotely access email inboxes. The group, known as Hafnium, was found by Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Centre to be statesponsored and operating out of China.