WASHINGTON — Evidence of an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government is prompting the Obama administration to develop more aggressive responses to the theft of US government data and corporate trade secrets. A report being released Wednesday considers fines and other trade actions against China or any other country guilty of cyber-espionage. Officials familiar with the administration's plans spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the threatened action. The Chinese government denies being involved in the cyberattacks cited in a cybersecurity firm's analysis of breaches that compromised more than 140 companies. On Wednesday, China's Defense Ministry called the report deeply flawed. The release of the report increases the pressure on the US to take more forceful action against the Chinese. “If the Chinese government flew planes into our airspace, our planes would escort them away. If it happened two, three or four times, the president would be on the phone and there would be threats of retaliation,” said Shawn Henry, former FBI executive assistant director. “This is happening thousands of times a day. There needs to be some definition of where the red line is and what the repercussions would be.” Henry, the president of the security firm CrowdStrike, said that rather than tell companies to increase their cybersecurity, the government needs to focus more on how to deter the hackers and the nations that are backing them. James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in the past year the White House has been taking a serious look at responding to China. “This will be the year they will put more pressure on, even while realizing it will be hard for the Chinese to change. There's not an on-off switch,” Lewis said. In denying involvement in the cyberattacks tracked by Mandiant, China's Foreign Ministry said China too has been a victim of hacking, some of it traced to the US Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei cited a report by an agency under the Ministry of Information Technology and Industry that said that in 2012 alone foreign hackers used viruses and other malicious software to seize control of 1,400 computers in China and 38,000 websites. “Among the above attacks, those from the US numbered the most,” Hong said at a daily media briefing, lodging the most specific allegations the Chinese government has made about foreign hacking. Cybersecurity experts say US authorities do not conduct similar attacks or steal data from Chinese companies but acknowledge that intelligence agencies routinely spy on other countries. China is clearly a target of interest, said Lewis, noting that the US would be interested in Beijing's military policies, such as any plans for action against Taiwan or Japan. “In a state that rigorously monitors Internet use, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese government is unaware of an attack group that operates from the Pudong New Area of Shanghai,” the Mandiant report said, concluding that the only way the group could function is with the “full knowledge and cooperation” of the Beijing government. — AP
