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China accused of cyberattacks on New Zealand

Liam Tung ZDNet Australia

Published: 13 Sep 2007 10:07 BST

The New Zealand secret service has suggested the Chinese government was behind attacks on the country's networks.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday assured reporters that no classified information had been compromised but confirmed that she believed foreign government spies were behind the cyberattack.

While Clark said officials know which government was behind the attack, she would not name the country suspected.

"Now we have very smart people to provide protection every time an attack is tried. Obviously we learn from that," she told reporters.

Warren Tucker, New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service director, hinted to the local newspaper The Dominion Post that the Chinese government was responsible for the attacks, referring to previous allegations about the country's spying activities by Canada's secret service.

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The allegations come only a week after the Chinese foreign ministry denied that the Chinese government had endorsed attacks on the computer networks of Germany, the US and the UK.

Foreign ministry representative Jiang Yu said in a recent press conference: "Any accusation of Chinese military force attacking computer systems of foreign governments is groundless, irresponsible and out of ulterior motives. As far as I know, up till now, the Chinese police have not received any request for investigation assistance from the relevant countries."