Defense minister denies China behind cyber attacks

SINGAPORE – China’s defense minister on Sunday denied that Beijing was behind cyber attacks on foreign targets and said the country was also a victim of Internet hackers.

“It is hard to attribute the real source of attacks and we need to work together to make sure that this security problem won’t be a problem,” Defense Minister Liang Guanglie told a security forum in Singapore.

“Actually in China we also suffered quite a wide range (of) and frequent cyber attacks,” he said through a translator.

“The Chinese government attaches importance also on cyber security and stands firmly against all kinds of cyber crimes,” he said.

“It is important for everyone to obey or follow laws and regulations in terms of cyber security,” said Liang, who joined calls for global coordination to deal with cyber security.

The United States and Britain called Saturday for international cooperation against threats to cyber security following a fresh spate of attacks on government and corporate targets.

A few days before, Internet giant Google said a cyber spying campaign originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of senior US officials, military personnel, journalists and Chinese political activists.

China said Thursday it was “unacceptable” to blame it for operation.

US aerospace giant Boeing said Friday on the sidelines of the Singapore conference that it was under “continuous” cyber attack but there had been no breach of its databases.