BEIJING, Sept. 12 China has incurred "massive and shocking" damage from computer hacking by foreign intelligence agencies, a senior Chinese official said.
Vice Information Industry Minister Lou Qinjian recently wrote in the Chinese Cadres Tribune that such computer-based espionage efforts have resulted in the detrimental loss of top secret Chinese information, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
"In recent years, party, government and military organs and national defense scientific research units have had many major cases of loss, theft and leakage of secrets," Qinjian said, "and the damage to national interests has been massive and shocking."
The senior Chinese official alleged that 80 percent of the computers used in such illicit efforts were traced back to the United States.
The Post said Qinjian's comments appeared to be in response several recent reports about Chinese computer hackers targeting Western nations.
Among the nations that reportedly had their high-security computers infiltrated were Britain, Germany and the United States.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
