Vietnam says accusations it hacked China center for Wuhan virus info ‘baseless’

A report that said Vietnamese government-linked hackers had attempted to break into Chinese state organizations at the center of Beijing’s effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak is “baseless,” the Foreign Ministry in Hanoi said on Thursday.

US cybersecurity firm FireEye said the previous day that the hackers had tried to compromise the personal and professional email accounts of staff at China’s Ministry of Emergency Management and the government of Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the pandemic.

“The accusation is baseless,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ngo Toan Thang told reporters. “Vietnam forbids all cyberattacks, which should be denounced and strictly dealt with by law.”

Hanoi is willing to co-operate with international partners to combat cyberattacks, Reuters quoted Thang as saying.