WASHINGTON: Beijing-linked hackers accessed the email account of the US ambassador to China in an espionage operation thought to have compromised at least hundreds of thousands of US government emails, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington said China consistently opposed hacking and it rejected “groundless” speculation about the source of cyber-attacks.

“China firmly opposes and combats cyber-attacks and cyber theft in all forms. This position is consistent and clear,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in an emailed.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Friday that US authorities are still investigating a hack reported by Microsoft involving her emails and she would not speculate on whether China was behind it.

Raimondo was among a group of senior US officials whose emails were hacked earlier this year by a group Microsoft (MSFT.O) said was based in China, according to a person briefed on the matter.

“We don’t know yet the full extent of it,” Raimondo said in an interview with CNN.

Asked if she believed China was behind the hack, Raimondo said she did not know and would not speculate. “It’s a significant hack. It’s unacceptable, whoever did it. And we’re going to investigate it fully and find out who’s behind it, she said.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2023