Chinese government-linked hackers have tried to steal sensitive data from some three dozen manufacturing and technology firms in the US, Europe and Asia, security researchers said Wednesday, in findings that shed new light on Beijing's alleged use of hacking to buttress its powerhouse economy. The hackers targeted blueprints for producing materials with broad applications to the pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors,
according to Boston-based security firm Cybereason. The firm discovered the activity last year but said the hacking campaign dates to at least 2019, and it suggested that reams of data could have been stolen in the interim.
The research is an unsettling reminder of the scope of the cyber threats facing US businesses and government agencies as the Biden administration attempts to thwart them. For all of the attention on potential
Russian hacking due to the war in Ukraine, China's digital operatives have been very active. "It's clearly industrial espionage, IP [intellectual property] theft at the highest level," Assaf Dahan, Cybereason's research lead, told CNN.
Asked to respond to the Cybereason report, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, claimed that China "will never encourage, support or condone cyber attacks."
