A report written by the Britain's intelligence agency, MI5, which was actually issued more than 12 months back, has claimed that China was burgling and bugging the business executives of the UK. This report has been leaked recently.
It was mentioned in the report that Chinese government hackers loaded the generous bargains at trade fairs, like digital cameras and USBs, with spyware so as to procure important commercial secrets. In addition to this, the report also claimed that majority of attempts to procure company secrets were made by agents employed in the Ministry of Public Security and Chinese People's Liberation Army. In a concerted hacking campaign, Chinese agents have launched attacks on the defense, communications, energy and manufacturing companies of the UK, as stated by the report written by MI5's Center for the Protection of National Infrastructure. To add to, the country has crossed all the limits by targeting e-mail accounts and computer networks of the international law firms and public relations companies. According to the report, in case any UK company holds information or data, which could be beneficial to the Chinese, then the company might be at risk. The agency commented that as the Chinese government uses the aforesaid methods along with extensive electronic hacking, it represents one of the most substantial spying threats to the UK. The point to be noted is that it is not the first instance when Chinese authorities have been blamed of cyber espionage. Recently, in September 2009, the Chinese military were accused of a cyber assault that aimed Pentagon computer system. According to unidentified sources, the People's Liberation Army was accused in an internal investigation for committing the attempted hack. Besides, Trojan horses responsible for targeting British businesses and government departments were analyzed two years back in 2008 by the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC). It was believed that China was the host to most of the malware. As stated by a report by Whitehall's joint intelligence committee in 2009, China may possibly have the competence to shut down critical services like the supply of food, water and power. However, the country has repeatedly refused spying on the West and Britain. |
