The European Union and United States on Monday blamed China for the hacking of the Microsoft Exchange email server that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year, writes Euronews.

In a statement, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said the “malicious cyber activities” had “significantly affected our economy, security, democracy and society at large”.

The Microsoft Exchange hack, first identified in January, was rapidly attributed to Chinese cyber spies by private sector groups.

Borrell’s statement marks the first time the EU has levelled blame for the hack at China. The UK, Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and NATO also issued their own condemnations.

“We have also detected malicious cyber activities with significant effects that targeted government institutions and political organisations in the EU and Member States, as well as key European industries”, - Borrell said.

The attack against Microsoft Exchange could be traced to hacker groups known to cybersecurity professionals as Advanced Persistent Threat 40 (APT40) and Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31), and was “conducted from the territory of China for the purpose of intellectual property theft and espionage”, he continued.