Hackers from China's Tsinghua University reportedly performed scans of Alaskan government, business and infrastructure networks, cybersecurity firm Recorded Future reported. According to Recorded Future, peak scanning activities coming from China could be seen weeks prior to the visit of an Alaskan delegation to China in May and sometime after it in June.
Recorded Future believes hackers were first looking for vulnerabilities in Alaskan networks and then, following the talks with the Alaskan delegation, they were looking to obtain valuable classified information that would help them in follow-up meetings. The cybersecurity firm admits that it's clueless as to whether hackers achieved their goals or not, but said it had sent a copy of its report to the FBI to investigate.
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When asked to comment on the allegations by Reuters, an anonymous official from Tsinghua University rebuffed the accusations as "baseless." Chinese officials haven't commented on the report yet.
US-China relations deteriorated after Washington imposed harsh tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, prompting a mirror response from Beijing. Despite the ongoing trade war between the two, Alaska has been trying to build its own good business relations with China on its own by conducting direct talks with Chinese representatives.
