Report ties Chinese military to cyber attacks on U.S. computers

By William Wan, WashPost, Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 4:24 AM

BEIJING — A U.S. security firm has tied more than a hundred cyber attacks on U.S. corporations to China’s military, according to a report released Tuesday.

The 60-page study by investigators at the Alexandria-based Mandiant security firm presents one of the most comprehensive and detailed analysis to date tracing corporate cyber espionage to the doorstep of Chinese military facilities. And it calls into question China’s repeated denials that its military is engaged in such activities.

The document, first reported by the New York Times, draws on data Mandiant collected from 147 attacks during seven years it traced back to a single group it designated “APT1,” a group Mandiant has now identified as a military unit within the 2nd bureau of China’s People’s Liberation Army General Staff Department’s 3rd Department, going by the designation “Unit 61398.”

The Chinese military has repeatedly denounced such accusations.

(More here.)