The Chinese government has denied being the source of a Gmail hack that breached the personal accounts of U.S. and South Korean senior government officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel, and journalists.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Hong Lei told reporters, "Allegations that the Chinese government supports hacking activities are completely unfounded and made with ulterior motives."

Hong also said cybercrime was a "global problem" and that Chinese networks have also been the target of hackers.

In a separate e-mailed statement picked up by AP, Lei wrote that the "Chinese government is firmly opposed to any cyber criminal activity, including hacking ...[and] is ready to cooperate with the international community to combat against it."

On Tuesday, Google said it traced the IP addresses of the phishing attack to Jinan, China, the home city of a military vocational school whose computers were also linked to a cyber attack on Google in January 2010. Last year's attack prompted Google to move its headquarters to Hong Kong, where it does not have to abide by China's stringent Internet censorship laws.

While China has vehemently denied involvement in the 2010 Google attack, thousands of cables released by WikiLeaks last November suggested otherwise.

Government-owned Xinhua News lashed out at Google in a commentary published Thursday:

"The chimerical complaints by Google have become obstacles for enhancing global trust between stakeholders in cyberspace," it wrote. "It was too imprudent for the online giant to lash out at others without solid proof to support its accusation."

As Xinhua correctly points out, the physical origin of an IP address does not prove that hackers were actually sitting behind computers in that location—the attack could have been performed anywhere through a remotely-controlled bot or malware.

Naked Security has some good tips on securing your Gmail account, like enabling Google's two-step verification system and choosing a good password. Our favorite easy step is to monitor the locations from which your Gmail account is being assessed. You can do this by scrolling down to the bottom of your Inbox page, clicking on "Details," and glancing through the countries listed under "Location (IP address)."