By Sam Ozer-Staton

On Monday, the Biden administration publicly blamed China for a wide-ranging cyber attack that breached Microsoft’s Exchange email server, which supports tens of thousands of computers around the world. The attack, which is believed to have taken place in January, reportedly infected systems belonging to a range of Microsoft users including state and local governments, military contractors, and small businesses. 

While the hack was first detected and reported in March, the United States’ public condemnation of Beijing represents an escalation of tensions in the already-fraught U.S-China relationship. And the Biden administration did not go it alone; it was joined by NATO and the European Union, along with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China’s intelligence service “has fostered an ecosystem of criminal contract hackers who carry out both state-sponsored activities and cybercrime for their own financial gain.” But despite the strong language, the United States declined to impose sanctions on China, a step the Biden administration took against Russia in April following the SolarWinds hack, which compromised U.S. government agencies and over 100 companies.