China vows to toughen Internet security

(Photo: Flickr / U.S. Pacific Command)Entering Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China.

China's Ministry of National Defense attacked the US over recent reports that it spied  on Huawei Technologies, Inc. and said it plans to strengthen China's Internet security to prevent more penetrations.

The ministry said it will take effective measures to strengthen its work on Internet security but did not state what measures it would take. It said the alleged spying exposes US hypocrisy and tyranny.

In February, China established a new high-level government committee dedicated to cyber security and information technology. In creating the new governing body, China's president Xi Jinping said cyber security had become a national security matter.

The comments are China's strongest yet on the spying allegations, and came after reports that the National Security Agency allegedly has a cyber espionage directed against Huawei, the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world and based in Shenzhen.

The allegations come from documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has been leaking details of US spying efforts since June.

The NSA was apparently trying to find evidence of the company's potential ties to the Chinese military. This cyber spying involved hacking into servers at Huawei's headquarters, and planting back doors into its equipment to facilitate remote surveillance.

Huawei responded to the revelations by saying it condemned hacking activities if proved to true. It has faced heavy scrutiny from US officials that fear Huawei's equipment contains technology used by China to spy on another nations. Huawei has denied these allegations but this didn't stop a US congressional panel from declaring the company a security threat in 2012.

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