The Chinese government is ratcheting up its cyberspying operations against the U.S., a congressional advisory panel found, citing an example of a carefully orchestrated campaign against one U.S. company that appears to have been sponsored by Beijing.
The unnamed company was just one of several successfully penetrated by a campaign of cyberespionage, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report to be released Thursday. Chinese espionage operations are "straining the U.S. capacity to respond," the report concludes.
The report highlights several departments of China's military, the People's Liberation Army, responsible for components of cyberspying. Together these divisions oversee electronic spying and attack efforts, as well as research and development.
The PLA has also been creating a number of cyberwarfare militia units, which draw on civilians in the telecommunications and technology sectors, as well as academia, the report found.
The Chinese have proven to be very good at cyber-espionage. They are patient and extremely persistent. Everything they do is carefully targeted and planned. They conduct their activities at times and in a manor that is very hard to detect, effectively blending in with normal user activity. They don't make many mistakes, and they rarely miss mistakes they can take advantage of. They are extremely crafty when it comes to regaining access after being caught.
I highly respect my opponents. They play a good game.