U.S. publicly accuses Russia, China of cyber-espionage

PanARMENIAN.Net - Online industrial spying presents a growing threat to the U.S. economy and national security, American intelligence agencies warned Thursday, November 3, in a report to Congress that publicly accused China and Russia of responsibility for cyber-espionage.

Tens of billions of dollars of trade secrets, technology and intellectual property are being siphoned each year from the computer systems of U.S. government agencies, corporations and research institutions, said the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, which focuses on espionage against the United States.

“Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” said the report, “Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace,” which was based on the work of 14 U.S. intelligence agencies. The report also notes that “Russia’s intelligence services are conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and technology from U.S. targets.”

Robert “Bear” Bryant, the national counterintelligence executive, said at a news conference that online spying is “a quiet menace to our economy with notably big results. . . . Trade secrets developed over thousands of working hours by our brightest minds are stolen in a split second and transferred to our competitors.”

Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodang rejected the U.S. contentions, saying that China opposes “any form of unlawful cyberspace activities.”

A Russian Embassy spokesman declined to comment on the report, The Washington Post reported.