SHANGHAI,  (Reuters) – A prestigious Chinese  university and a lesser-known vocational school have denied a  report they were the source of recent cyber attacks on Internet  giant Google and other U.S. corporations, Xinhua news agency  said on Saturday.

A representative of Shanghai Jiaotong University,  considered one of China’s best, said the allegations in a New  York Times report were baseless and even if the school’s  computers appeared to be involved, it did not mean the hackers  were based there.

“We were shocked and indignant to hear these baseless  allegations which may harm the university’s reputation,” Xinhua  quoted the unnamed Jiaotong University spokesperson saying.

“The report of the New York Times was based simply on an IP  address. Given the highly developed network technology today,  such a report is neither objective nor balanced.”

The Communist party boss at Lanxiang Vocational School, the  other institution fingered in the report, also denied any role.