Chinese hackers have successfully pillaged the databanks of U.S. defense and security contractors over the last several years, stealing massive quantities of data, Bloomberg reports:
QinetiQ was only one target in a broader cyber pillage. Beginning at least as early as 2007, Chinese computer spies raided the databanks of almost every major U.S. defense contractor and made off with some of the country’s most closely guarded technological secrets, according to two former Pentagon officials who asked not to be named because damage assessments of the incidents remain classified.
As the White House moves to confront China over its theft of U.S. technology through hacking, policy makers are faced with the question of how much damage has already been done. During their multiyear assault on defense contractors, the spies stole several terabytes -- equal to hundreds of millions of pages --of documents and data on weapons programs, dwarfing in sheer quantity any theft of Cold War secrets. The QinetiQ hack may have compromised information vital to national security, such as the deployment and capabilities of the combat helicopter fleet. [...]
In 2007-2008, the Pentagon gave secret briefings to about 30 defense companies alerting them to the aggressive spying effort and providing data to help defend against it, according to a person familiar with the process. The person did not know whether QinetiQ received the classified intelligence.
According to officials, U.S. intelligence agencies have traced the recent compromise of a sensitive U.S. military infrastructure database to Chinese hackers, the Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this week.
Cyber attacks have been an increasing area of concern for the U.S. military, especially from Chinese hackers.
"Cyber is now at a point where the technology is there to cripple a country," former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier this year, "to take down our power grid system, to take down our government systems, take down our financial systems, and literally paralyze the country. That is a reality."