The United States must beef up cyber security against Chinese hackers targeting a broad range of U.S. interests to raise the cost to China of engaging in such activities, America’s top intelligence official said on Thursday.
The testimony by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper before a congressional committee added to pressure on Beijing over its conduct in cyberspace just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a state visit to Washington.
Presenting a dire assessment of global cyber risks, Clapper said China and Russia posed the most advanced cyber threats but that Iran and North Korea could also cause serious disruptions despite having less sophisticated technology.
“Chinese cyber espionage continues to target a broad spectrum of U.S. interests, ranging from national security information to sensitive economic data and U.S. intellectual property,” he told the House of Representatives intelligence committee.
The Obama administration is considering targeted sanctions against Chinese individuals and companies for cyber attacks against U.S. commercial targets, several U.S. officials have said.
Chinese hackers have also been implicated in the massive hacking of the U.S. government’s personnel office disclosed this year. Two breaches of security clearance applications exposed the personal data of more than 20 million federal employees.
Clapper did not explicitly blame China for hacking the Office of Personnel Management, but he said the breach could compromise the cover of U.S. spies abroad, though he said there had not yet been any signs of “nefarious” use of the data.
“It’s a significant counter-intelligence threat,” FBI director James Comey testified at the same hearing.
China has denied any involvement in hacking U.S. government and corporate databases and insists that it too has been a victim of cyber attacks.
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