The AP reports:

China denied accusations by two U.S. lawmakers that it hacked into congressional computers, saying Thursday that as a developing country it wasn’t capable of sophisticated cybercrime.

“Is there any evidence? … Do we have such advanced technology? Even I don’t believe it,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regularly scheduled news conference.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday that their office computers were hacked into by people working from China. Both lawmakers, longtime critics of China’s human rights record, said the compromised computers had information regarding political dissidents.

Mr. Qin is right to ask for evidence. There’s a constant stream of these kinds of stories, but evidence is rarely produced and it’s always inconclusive. He’s absolutely wrong about the “advanced technology” required. All it takes is a poorly administered server and one script kiddie and the server can be compromised.

China’s hackers are an able bunch, there certainly are enough targets locally to get lots and lots of practice. I can understand Mr. Qin not wanting to recognize this, but he’s either as clueless as your average congressman or, more likely, just wants all these allegations to go away.

I don’t doubt that this kind of thing happens all the time, I just can’t believe that China is the only one doing it.

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