[Infowarrior] - Irony: US Charges China with Cyber-Spying on American Firms

[Richard Forno]

Sorry, I just can’t help laughing at the hypocritical irony of this story.   —rick


US Charges China with Cyber-Spying on American Firms

11 Mins Ago
NBC News

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101684269

The Justice Department has filed criminal charges against several Chinese government officials, accusing them of stealing American trade secrets through cyber espionage, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case.

It's the first time the United States has brought cyber espionage charges against a state actor.

Details of the charges are to be announced by Attorney General Eric Holder later on Monday.

The charges will name several individuals who are Chinese government employees, according to a U.S. official. "They used military and intelligence facilities to commit cyber espionage against U.S. companies," the official said.

The names of the targeted companies could not immediately be determined, but they were said to be in the energy and manufacturing sectors.
The Obama administration has long considered China the most aggressive nation in obtaining industrial secrets through spying.
"Chinese actors are the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage," said the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a U.S. government agency, in a 2011 report.
A year ago, several U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, said hackers traced to China attacked their newsroom computer systems.
A spokesman for China's foreign ministry called any suggestion that the Chinese were involved in those intrusions "irresponsible," though U.S. security experts said China targeted news organizations in the U.S. and overseas to try to identify the sources of news leaks within the Chinese government.
Those disclosures prompted a computer security expert and former Justice Department lawyer, Marc Zwillinger to say, "the only computers these days that are safe from Chinese government hackers are computers that are turned off, unplugged, and thrown in the back seat of your car."
—By NBC News


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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.