World (AP)

Germany says China was behind a 2021 cyberattack on a government agency and summons its ambassador

Germany says China was behind a 2021 cyberattack on a government agency and summons its ambassador

BERLIN (AP) — An investigation has determined that “Chinese state actors” were responsible for a 2021 cyberattack on Germany’s national office for cartography, officials in Berlin said Wednesday. The Chinese ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a protest for the first time in decades.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said the German government has “reliable information from our intelligence services” on the source of the attack on the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy.

He said it “condemns in the strongest terms” the cyberattack and calls on Beijing to refrain from and prevent such activities. He declined to elaborate on who exactly in China was responsible.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Maximilian Kall said it had been possible to stop the attack and comprehensive measures have been taken to prevent a repeat.

Fischer said a Chinese ambassador was last summoned to the German Foreign Ministry in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square crackdown.