China rejects charges about hacking Indian sites

China on Tuesday dismissed as 'groundless' India's charge that Chinese hackers had attempted to break into sensitive Indian government computers, a week after American internet giant Google leveled a similar allegation against it.

"I can say that these accusations are groundless," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters when asked to comment on former National Security Adviser M K Narayanan's reported comments that Chinese hackers may be involved in a December 15 attempt to penetrate Indian government computers, including that of his office.

"The Chinese government is firmly against hacking activities and will deal with relevant cases in accordance with the law," Ma said.

He also claimed that China itself was the 'biggest victim' of hacking activities. Narayanan told The Times of London that his office and other government departments were targeted on December 15, the same date when Google reported cyber attacks originating from China. He said the attack came in the form of an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing 'Trojan' virus, which allows a hacker to access a computer remotely and download or delete files.

"People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese. It is difficult to find the exact source but this is the main suspicion. It seems well founded," he was quoted as saying.

Google had last week threatened to shut down its operations in China after uncovering hacking attempts into e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.