The Chinese government is set to reveal a "highly secretive global reconnaissance system" belonging to the United States, which was responsible for the cyberattack on the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center, the Global Times reported on Monday. China said the attack happened on July 26, when "backdoor malware" infected the science center's earthquake reporting software.
The National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) and Chinese cybersecurity company 360 subsequently launched an investigation, which showed that the malware "exhibits characteristics of US intelligence agencies," according to the report. A CVERC senior engineer told the Global Times that the earthquake center is of importance for military intelligence as it includes "not only basic information like magnitude and epicenter but also rich geographical and geological data such as surface deformation and hydrological monitoring."