China accused of cyberattacks on New Zealand

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday assured reporters that no classified information had been compromised but confirmed that she believes that foreign-government spies were behind the cyberattack.

While Clark said officials know which government was behind the attack, she would not name the country suspected.

"We have very smart people to provide protection every time an attack is tried. Obviously, we learn from that," she told reporters.

Warren Tucker, New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service director, hinted to local newspaper The Dominion Post that the Chinese government was responsible for the attacks, referring to previous allegations about the country's spying activities by Canada's secret service.

The allegations come only a week after the Chinese foreign ministry denied that the Chinese government had endorsed attacks on the computer networks of Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.

"Any accusation of Chinese military force attacking computer systems of foreign governments is groundless, irresponsible and out of ulterior motives," Chinese foreign-ministry representative Jiang Yu said in a recent press conference. "As far as I know, up till now, the Chinese police have not received any request for investigation assistance from the relevant countries."

Liam Tung of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.