China’s government carried out numerous cyber attacks against United States government and private sector computers this year and has emerged as the most significant threat in cyberspace, according to a congressional commission report made public Wednesday.
“In 2012, Chinese state-sponsored actors continued to exploit government, military, industrial, and nongovernmental computer systems,” the report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “Any individual penetration remains difficult to attribute, but security researchers are increasingly able to group exploitations into campaigns based on common features and gain better insight into those responsible.”
The report said Chinese cyber attack capabilities “are improving significantly.”
“Irrespective of sophistication, the volume of exploitation attempts yielded enough successful breaches to make China the most threatening actor in cyberspace,” the report said.
The report identified Chinese military and intelligence organizations as the most sophisticated players in the cyber warfare efforts along with quasi-official cyber militias and other organized cyber attackers such as Chinese state-run information technology and telecommunications firms.
Cyber espionage is carried out mainly by Chinese intelligence organs.
