No Evidence: China Denies Reports of Hacking SII, Bharat Biotech

“This behaviour is irresponsible and has ulterior motive,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

(Photo: Reuters)

The Chinese foreign ministry on Tuesday, 2 March dismissed the cyber intelligence firm Cyfirma’s allegation that a state-backed group of hackers targeted the IT systems of Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India (SII), the two Indian COVID-19 vaccine makers.

According to Cyfirma, a Chinese hacking group called APT10, which also goes by Stone Panda, had identified holes in the IT infrastructure and supply chain software of the two companies.

However, the Chinese foreign ministry told Reuters that the firm showed no evidence and “made baseless speculation, distorted and concocted facts, to malign a specific party.”

The written response added, “This behaviour is irresponsible and has ulterior motive. China firmly opposes it.”

Cyfirma responded to Beijing’s dismissal of the allegations and reiterated their stand, “We stand by our findings and research,” Reuters reported.

SII and Bharat Biotech offered no comments on the matter.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’s (CERT) director general’s office on Monday told Reuters that the matter had been handed over to its operations director.