China still trying to hack US companies: Report
A US computer security firm says hackers associated with the Chinese government have attempted to penetrate the networks of US companies in the past few weeks to steal trade secrets despite a recent pledge by China and the US not to do so.
CrowdStrike said Monday that software it placed on corporate computers at five US technology and two pharmaceutical companies has detected and rebuffed seven Chinese cyber attacks since September 26.
On September 25, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed in Washington that neither government would knowingly conduct cyber espionage to steal trade secrets.
“This is a pretty clear violation of the agreement as opposed to other types of espionage,” said CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch, adding, “What else would you steal from a pharmaceutical company” aside from trade secrets?
However, former US officials and investigators at other security companies cautioned it may be too soon to conclude that China is violating the new agreement.
CrowdStrike, which is based in Irvine, California, said it had notified the Obama administration of its findings but declined to identify the targeted companies.
A senior White House official said the US government was aware of CrowdStrike's report but declined to comment on its specific conclusions.
In August, the White House said it was preparing to impose economic sanctions on Chinese companies that benefited from government-sponsored hacking.
But a promise by the Chinese government to cease such activity and its arrests of several hackers, among other gestures, helped persuade the Obama administration to postpone imposing sanctions.
American companies have complained for years that Chinese-linked hackers have sought to steal their trade secrets and intellectual property for the benefit of China’s industries.
China has dismissed the hacking allegations as irresponsible and unscientific.
Beijing says Washington’s cyber-attack accusations are hypocritical, since intelligence leaks have revealed that the US itself is the most active perpetrator of cyber espionage against foreign countries, especially against China.
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