The US Embassy claims that China-based espionage groups compromised Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry system

The United States revealed following a collaborative cybersecurity examination that China-based hackers gained access to Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry system.

China-based cyber espionage organizations breached the computer system of the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said Tuesday.

The embassy said the hack was discovered during a joint cybersecurity investigation with the US Southern Command and the Guatemalan government, in a statement posted on social media site X. The goal of the inquiry was to defend the nation in Central America’s digital infrastructure from increasingly dangerous cyberattacks.

Although the nature and scope of the hack were not made public, the disclosure highlights growing worries about state-sponsored cyberattacks on global government institutions.

Neither Chinese authorities nor the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry have addressed the accusations in public. But given the issue of cybersecurity and digital espionage, the episode is probably going to exacerbate already existing tensions between China and Western nations.

Beijing continuously refutes the United States’ accusations that it is conducting cyber-espionage campaigns against foreign governments, corporations, and infrastructure.