Chinese government stole a massive amount of highly secured data (600 GB) related to US undersea warfare. American officials revealed that the data has information related to a secret plan on developing supersonic missile for a 2020 US submarine project.
This is not the first time Chines government hacked highly sensitive security data off another superpower in the world, US media says.
The Chinese hack targetted a US Naval Undersea Warfare Center contractor. The mentioned Warfare Center in the Rhode Island is a US military organization that conducts research and development for underwater machinery and submarine weaponry. The US hasn't yet revealed the information of the contractor but reported that the mentioned breach occurred at the start of this year.
The hack primarily accessed the data related to a project called Sea Dragon, although it also had additional information related to electronic warfare library. This is the very reason why the hacked data is considered highly sensitive. Bill, a commander of the US Navy informed the media that measures are in place to notify the government in case of a hack related to controlled unclassified information. Bill added, that any further revelations related to this hack will be inappropriate.
The details on hundreds of software and mechanical systems were altogether compromised during this breach. This military hack was critical as China would use it to challenge US naval forces and will also build its own capabilities over other countries. China’s dream to become a superpower in East Asia is in alignment with this breach.
The investigation related to this cyber hack is being conducted with the aides of FBI. All the appropriate steps are being taken, informed another FBI official.
This news of theft by the Chinese government is serious, as this is a few days prior to a summit in Singapore. This summit is where Donald Trump is scheduled to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a mutual diplomatic agreement and North Korea counts Beijing as their allies. At the same time, US has been consistently trying to gain China’s support to persuade North Korea to give up Nuclear warfare.
It’s not a secret that both US and China have been subjected to spying on military technology of other powers in the world. It’s normal for another country to protect its state through the systematic use of spies to get political and military secrets, but the US doesn’t consider this theft as one such incident.
The ex. White House cybersecurity, Michael Daniel said - “this breach was different as it was conducted to benefit a Chinese company and was a theft of intellectual property.”
“Had it been for just the national security, our approach to handling it would have been different” – he added.
What do you think of such hacks? Do you think China has a bigger plan behind this hack? Let us know in the comments.