China stole US corporate secrets, military data in over 600 cyber attacks, NSA bares

A National Security Agency map shows the targets in the United States hit by Chinese cyber spies in the past five years. (NSA)

More than 600 cyber attacks have been launched in the United States by China, stealing corporate secrets and classified military and US infrastructure data.

NBC News said it obtained a secret National Security Agency (NSA) map that showed corporate, private and government "victims of Chinese cyber espionage" in five years including Google.

The attacks were launched throughout the US including California's Silicon Valley, Washington, Boston, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Seattle and Detroit. California had the most with 50 attacks.

Each dot in the map (shown above) represents a successful intrusion by China into US networks that include hybrid cars specifications and US military targets, the NBC report said.

The map was unveiled by the NSA at a briefing in February last year in which it was revealed that Chinese government hackers stole from US networks.

It suggested that the NSA was able to monitor China's cyber attacks.

In his testimony before the US House Intelligence Committee last November, NSA Director Mike Rogers said China and one or two other countries now have the capability to shut down the computer systems of US power utilities, aviation network and financial companies.

Rogers said cyber attackers were able to penetrate these US systems.

"What concerns us is that access, that capability, can be used by nation-states, groups or individuals to take down that capability," he said, according to Reuters.

However, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei claimed that the Chinese government prohibits cyber hacking, alleging that China is the one being victimised by cyber attacks from the US.

"The Chinese government resolutely cracks down on these activities. This reality is irrefutable," Hong said.

In the hearing, chairperson Rep. Mike Rogers said China's "economic cyber-espionage" has grown exponentially in terms of "volume and damage done to our nation's economic future."

"Chinese intelligence services that conduct these attacks have little fear, because we have no practical deterrence to that theft. This problem is not going away until that changes," Rogers said.

He said China's economic cyber-espionage is not the only threat the US faces since there is also Iran, which launched a denial-of-service attacks on US financial networks in 2012.

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