China condemns US cyberattack on Xi’an Polytechnical University

Beijing, Sep 5 (Prensa Latina) China strongly condemns the cyber attacks launched by the United States on China's Northwestern Polytechnical University, and urges the US side to offer an explanation and immediately stop its unlawful moves.

September 5, 2022
16:27

According to the Global Times newspaper, an anonymous source confirmed the investigation followed the operation launched on past June 22 against the polytechnic university, famous for its studies on aviation and aerospace sector.

Hackers´ emails tried to trick professors and students at the university into clicking on links and giving away their sign-in information, which could result in potential data leaks.

By extracting samples of Trojan horse programs from the university’s internet terminals with the support of European and South Asian partners, the technical team was able to initially identify that the cyberattack had been conducted by TAO (Code S32) under the Data Reconnaissance Bureau (Code S3) of the Information Department (Code S) of the NSA, it added.

The cyberattack operation was code-named “shotXXXX” by the NSA under the direct command of the head of TAO. At the time of the attack, Robert Joyce, who is the Director of Cybersecurity at NSA, was in charge of TAO, according to the investigation jointed launched by the center and internet security company, 360.

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