Some US officials said they have not seen signs that China was stopping hacking attacks aimed at stealing trade secrets from US companies.
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The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s Internet regulator, did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi and Department of Homeland Security spokesman S.Y. Lee declined to comment.
Xinhua said that an investigation had determined that the hacking attack on OPM that compromised personal data on more than 20 million people was a criminal case rather than a government-sponsored attack. Clapper told a Washington intelligence conference: “You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did”, given the difficulty of the intrusion.
The U.S. government disclosed in June that hackers had stolen federal personnel data on 22 million government employees and contractors, from fingerprints to social security numbers. No further details were provided regarding the investigation or whether the USA or Chinese government had conducted the investigation.
If the individuals detained were indeed the hackers, the arrests would be first time China has acted against hackers targeting United States interests.
So, was the OPM hack a case of traditional state-sanctioned, if not state-executed, espionage?
Chinese hacking of both private companies and government agencies has been a constant irritant between the USA and China.
But officials said it has been hard so far to independently confirm whether the people rounded up were actually connected to the OPM breach.
China’s attempt to deflect blame and point the finger at criminals is unlikely to stick for long – criminal hackers have before been linked to Beijing, working in conjunction with the government to carry out state-sponsored cyber attacks.
The Pentagon’s chief arms buyer, Frank Kendall, said on Wednesday that while he was not aware of Xinhua’s claim, he remained very concerned about Chinese hacking of US weapons systems.
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China’s government has refused to acknowledge its military and civilian intelligence agencies are engaged in cyber attacks that have been widely uncovered over the past decade.
