CHINA slammed the US Treasury yesterday for sanctioning a Beijing-based cybersecurity company that has been accused of involvement in multiple hacking incidents targeting critical US infrastructure.

This coincided with Beijing’s cyber security agency complaining that Chinese networks had been subject to attacks.

Asked about the sanctions against Beijing-based Integrity Technology Group, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the country has cracked down on cyber attacks and that Washington was using the issue to “defame and smear China.”

He added: “For some time now, the US side has been playing up so-called Chinese cyber attacks and has even initiated illegal unilateral sanctions against China.

“China firmly opposes this and will take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”

Integrity Technology Group said that Washington’s action had “no factual basis.”

In a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Integrity, also known as Yongxin Zhicheng Technology Group, said: “The company firmly opposes the US Treasury Department’s unwarranted accusations and Illegal unilateral sanctions on the company.”

Meanwhile the China National Cyber Security Information Centre said it had discovered attacks from various malicious websites and foreign IP addresses, including some in California and Florida. 

It also reported attacks from the Netherlands, Singapore, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam using trojan programmes, botnets, phishing, theft of intellectual property and violations of privacy.

“They pose a major threat to China’s domestic networked units and internet users and some activities have been suspected of criminal offences,” the centre said in a notice on its WeChat social media site.

Last Friday, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit Integrity Technology with sanctions that block its access to US property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with the country’s citizens. 

The office alleged that there had been multiple hacks against US victims, including incidents attributed to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored campaign that targets US critical infrastructure.

The sanctions did not appear to be related to a major breach of cybersecurity in which the Treasury Department reported that Chinese hackers had remotely accessed several of its workstations and unclassified documents.

Integrity Technology said the sanctions would not adversely affect its business since it did not operate in the US and has no assets there. 

It added that it abided by all laws and regulations and that it had “always adhered to the corporate vision and mission of bringing a sense of security to the world.”