A team of suspected Chinese hackers has infiltrated US software developers and law firms in a sophisticated campaign to collect intelligence that could help Beijing in its ongoing trade fight with Washington, cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Wednesday.
The hackers have been rampant in recent weeks, hitting the cloud-computing firms that numerous American companies rely on to store key data, Mandiant, which is owned by Google, said. In a sign of how important China’s hacking army is in the race for tech supremacy, the hackers have also stolen US tech firms’ proprietary software and used it to find new vulnerabilities to burrow deeper into networks, according to Mandiant.
The FBI is investigating the intrusions and US officials are still trying to understand the full scope of the hacks, sources told CNN.
It’s a fresh five-alarm fire for the FBI’s cyber experts, who at any given time are investigating multiple sophisticated Chinese cyber-espionage campaigns aimed at US government and corporate secrets.
In some cases, the hackers have lurked undetected in the US corporate networks for over a year, quietly collecting intelligence, Mandiant said.
The disclosure comes after the Trump administration escalated America’s trade war with China this spring by slapping unprecedented tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States. The tit-for-tat tariffs set off a scramble in both governments to understand each other’s positions.
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Source: Chinese hackers breach US software and law firms amid trade fight, experts say | CNN Politics
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