And when we say blamed, the US, UK, European Union and nations including Australia have banded together to point the finger at China for a major cyber-attack that targeted Microsoft Exchange servers earlier this year. At least 30,000 organisations globally were affected, including defence contractors, think tanks and universities. And the hack, which Western nations believe was overseen by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, was designed to enable large-scale espionage, including the harvesting of personal information and intellectual property. Initially, one Chinese group was involved, but as Microsoft prepared to patch the vulnerability, more piled on for a ‘smash-and-grab’ for data. The UK says the Chinese Government “ignored repeated calls to end its reckless campaign, instead allowing state-backed actors to increase the scale of their attacks and act recklessly when caught”. China has previously denied claims it was involved.

Image source: Reuters