Update | Someone hacked China’s central bank mailbox to email a bogus notice about bitcoin crackdown
A mailbox at the Hefei branch of the People’s Bank of China, the Chinese central bank, was hacked, and a bogus email was sent from the address, according to an official.
Bogus press invitations have been distributed to US media organisations claiming that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and People’s Bank of China (PBOC) are about to jointly introduce new measures to crack down on “all aspects and services of bitcoin trading in both mainland China and Hong Kong”.
The email said the PBOC and the HKMA will announce a new anti-money-laundering regulatory framework in Beijing on February 14, to be officiated by the Chinese central bank’s deputy governor Pan Gongsheng, to extend the crackdown to “all virtual currency services and activities of both individuals and business including market makers, mining operators, trading platforms and wallets”.
No such event has been scheduled, according to spokespeople at the monetary authorities in both Hong Kong and Beijing.
The invitation, seen by the South China Morning Post, was sent via email from an address with the suffix @pbc.gov.cn, which could easily be mistaken as authentic because it is in keeping with the email protocol used by China’s central bank. Emails sent to the address were returned with replies greeting journalists, with a registration form attached for the February 14 briefing.
The owner of the mailbox, an official working at the Hefei branch of the Chinese central bank in Anhui province, said he had no idea about the message that was sent from his address, adding that his email had been hacked.
