In the war against cyber-spying, the United States is losing out to China, according to experts in the field and previously undisclosed government documents. Chinese hackers have stolen terabytes (trillions of bytes) of sensitive data ranging from login information for State Department computers to designs for expensive weapons systems. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks revealed that many computer and network infiltrations can be traced back to an espionage unit of the Chinese military, specifically the People's Liberation Army Chengdu Province First Technical Reconnaissance Bureau. “The attacks coming out of China are not only continuing, they are accelerating,” Alan Paller, director of research at information-security training group SANS Institute in Washington, DC, told Reuters.

 

Chengdu is said to have been the venue for at least one Military Command Network Attack and Defense Competition.

 

According to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, Chinese cyber attacks on U.S. government computers increased from 5,503 incidents in 2006 to 41,776 in 2010.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

In Cyberspy vs. Cyberspy, China Has the Edge (by Brian Grow and Mark Hosenball, Reuters)

Chinese Cyber-Spies Infiltrate Computers in 103 Countries (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)