China Accuses US of Hacking Asian Winter Games, Names Suspected Agents

China has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of hacking the Asian Winter Games held earlier this year in Harbin, taking the unusual step of identifying individuals it believes were responsible, Bloomberg reports.

According to state news agency Xinhua, citing Harbin police, the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations carried out the attacks, which targeted critical systems including “registration, arrival/departure management, and competition entry platforms.” Chinese authorities claim “vast amounts of sensitive personal data of individuals associated with the games” were stored on the targeted computer systems.

Police identified three NSA agents suspected of carrying out the hacking as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson, Xinhua reported. The report also alleged that the three were involved in previous operations targeting Huawei Technologies Co. Bloomberg News was unable to immediately verify whether individuals with those names are employed by the NSA.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian condemned the alleged actions, stating the hacks “severely endangered the security of China’s critical information infrastructure, national defense, finance, society, production, as well as citizens’ personal information.”

China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center reported earlier this month that over 270,000 foreign cyberattacks were recorded on computer networks associated with the Asian Winter Games between February 7 and February 14. They claimed approximately two-thirds of these attacks originated from the United States.

The accusations come amid ongoing tensions between the US and China over cybersecurity. Washington has repeatedly accused Beijing of being the “most active and persistent cyber threat to US government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks,” citing examples such as the “Volt Typhoon” campaign targeting critical infrastructure.

Last month, US prosecutors charged 10 Chinese citizens and two government agents for alleged hacks targeting dissidents, religious groups, news outlets and American government agencies.

Chinese officials have consistently denied US allegations of state-sponsored hacking. In December, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed accusations that the government was behind the Treasury hack as “unwarranted and groundless.”