Officials in the Obama administration have addressed "serious concern" with China's alleged cyber-hacking, reporting that China's People's Liberation Army has stolen data from 115 U.S. companies over seven years.
While not addressing directly the report, officials on Tuesday said that the government is bulking up its cyber-defenses while stressing a new White House executive order aimed at helping protect computer networks of crucial American industries from cyber-attacks. "Unit 61398," a secretive Chinese military unit, is believed to be behind the series of hacking attacks.
"It is a major challenge for us in the national security arena," White House Press Secretary Jan Carney said, adding that it is known that foreign countries and companies "swipe" sensitive U.S. information.
Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. remains a "victim of cyber-attacks from various places," and continues "to shore up our cyber defense which this department is doing," adding that "cyber threats do emanate from China."
According to the Associated Press, a group linked to the Chinese government has been hacking into the online accounts of U.S. business, including the firm Mandiant Corp., citing a 74-page report that the group affiliated with China's People's Liberation Army had stolen data from 141 companies, 115 were in the U.S. beginning in 2006.
Stolen information includes details on the proprietary process in some companies, blueprints and contact lists, according to the report.
In recent weeks, many news organizations -- including The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp. have said they were also hacked by the Chinese.
Speaking at a daily news briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei denied the latest accusations and questioned the report's credibility.
"Cyber-attacks are anonymous and transnational, and it is hard to trace the origin of attacks, so I don't know how the findings of the report are credible," Lei said.
At his State of the Union last week, President Barack Obama discussed the growing threat from cyber-attacks, without specifically mentioning China. He signed an executive order aimed at helping protect computer networks of crucial American industries from cyber-attacks.
The president called for the development of voluntary standards to protect the computer systems, which run the critical sectors of the economy, like transportation and banking industries. His order also directed the country's intelligence and defense agencies to share classified threat data with those companies, reported foxnews.com
