Chinese schools deny link to Google attack

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

SHANGHAI
Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:46am ES

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A prestigious Chinese university and a lesser-known vocational school have denied a report they were the source of recent cyber attacks on Internet giant Google and other U.S. corporations, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

A representative of Shanghai Jiaotong University, considered one of China's best, said the allegations in a New York Times report were baseless and even if the school's computers appeared to be involved, it did not mean the hackers were based there.

"We were shocked and indignant to hear these baseless allegations which may harm the university's reputation," Xinhua quoted the unnamed Jiaotong University spokesperson saying.

"The report of the New York Times was based simply on an IP address. Given the highly developed network technology today, such a report is neither objective nor balanced."

The Communist party boss at Lanxiang Vocational School, the other institution fingered in the report, also denied any role.

"Investigation in the staff found no trace the attacks originated from our school," Li Zixiang, party chief at the school in coastal Shandong Province, was quoted as saying.

The New York Times said Lanxiang was established with support from the Chinese military and has trained computer scientists who later joined the military, but Li said there was no relationship with the military, Xinhua reported.

He also disputed the statement that investigators suspected a link to a computer science class taught by a Ukrainian professor.

"There is no Ukrainian teacher in the school and we have never employed any foreign staff," Li told Xinhua. "The report was unfounded. Please show the evidence."

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