Websites in China are being used to launch attacks on US
Defence Department computer networks and other US agencies,
according to reports in the Washington Post.
The newspaper cited four unnamed US government officials, who
spoke separately about the attacks, which go back up to three
years. Opinion was divided over whether the intrusions were
organised by the Chinese government or by other hackers using
Chinese sites to hide the origin of their attacks, the report
said.
Hundreds of networks have been compromised, although classified
networks have not been hit. Officials are said to be concerned that
data from different networks could be brought together to provide
useful intelligence.
“It's not just the Defence Department but a wide variety of
networks that have been hit,” one official was quoted as saying.
Other agencies hit included the State, Homeland Security and Energy
departments, along with defence contractors.
“This is an ongoing, organised attempt to siphon off information
from our unclassified systems,” the official said.
But the Post also quoted a more cautious assessment of the
seriousness of the problem from another official. While there were
"a large volume" of attacks, they were "not the biggest thing going
on out there," he said.