US Congress Suspects China of Cyber-Espionage

China is collecting intelligence from the US military and business sector, right under the nose of a powerless US government, the US House Intelligent Committee reports.

Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, claims 95 percent of private sector networks are vulnerable to cyber-attack and, in fact, they have already fallen victim to such attacks. Apparently not only China, but also Russia, Iran and Israel are reported by the Washington Post as having an economic interest in gathering corporate information from the US.

“They’re taking blueprints back, not just military documents, but civilian innovation that companies are going to use to create production lines to build things,” explains Rogers.

Recent intrusions in the private networks of the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times were, however, not directed towards economic gain. They were probably from the same campaign that saw some Google networks breached, where intruders were after Chinese human rights activists, and dissidents. These should be regarded more as a political response to articles reporting uncomfortable details about the Chinese administration.

Some experts believe these breaches may cost the US some 100 billion dollars a year. But these are just estimates, because a lot of companies still keep these cyber incidents private hoping to avoid reputation problems or explanations to shareholders and business partners.

On the other hand, Chen Yuming, China’s ambassador to Australia, told ABC “there are hundreds of thousands of computers in Chinese government agencies which have been attacked by cyber-attackers from overseas sources” and that China is also a victim of some 13 percent of cyber-attacks from all around the globe.

Apparently, the US suggests the same solution to this problem as the European Commission – namely to have all companies report cyber-crime live.