Fbi Declares 5 Chinese Nationals Wanted On Charges Of Cyber Espionage.

Beijing said it had "never engaged or participated" in cyber theft and that the charges would damage co-operation between the two countries. China summoned the US ambassador in Beijing over the incident. US prosecutors say the officers stole trade secrets and internal documents from five companies and a labour union. But the Chinese foreign ministry urged Washington to "immediately correct its mistakes" and withdraw the charges against the five men. The BBC's John Sudworth in Shanghai says it is extremely unlikely that any of the accused will ever be handed over to the US. The defence ministry also put out a strongly-worded statement on its website criticising the United States, and denying that China and its military had conducted cyber espionage. It said: "For years, the US has possessed the technology and essential infrastructure needed to conduct large-scale systematic surveillance on foreign governments, businesses and individuals. This is a fact which the whole world knows. "The US' deceitful nature and its practice of double standards when it comes to cyber security have long been exposed, with Wikileaks and the Edward Snowden affair." The defence ministry said that China's military had been the target of many online attacks, and "a fair number" of those were launched from American IP addresses. It added that the arrest of the five Chinese army officers had "severely damaged mutual trust". A Xinhua report stated that between March and May this year, a total of 1.18 million computers in China were directly controlled by 2,077 machines in the United States via Trojan horse or zombie malware. On Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the charges were "purely ungrounded and with ulterior purpose", according to Xinhua. He said China had decided to suspend activities of the China-US Cyber Working Group. The group was set up in April. China has always insisted that it is itself a victim of cyber theft, wiretapping and surveillance activities by the US. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang lodged a "solemn representation" with US ambassador Max Baucus on Monday night, Xinhua reported. US Attorney General Eric Holder said a grand jury had laid hacking charges against the Chinese nationals, the first against "known state actors for infiltrating US commercial targets by cyber means". He identified the alleged victims as Westinghouse Electric, US Steel, Alcoa Inc, Allegheny Technologies, SolarWorld and the US Steelworkers Union. "The alleged hacking appears to have been conducted for no reason other than to advantage state-owned companies and other interests in China, at the expense of businesses here in the United States," Mr Holder said. In the indictment brought in the western district of Pennsylvania - the heart of the US steel industry - the US named Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, all officers in Unit 61398 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), as the alleged conspirators. FBI officials said the hacking in the years 2006-14 caused "significant losses" at the companies and that there were likely many more victims. John Carlin, head of the justice department's national security division, said, "While the men and women of our American businesses spent their business days innovating, creating, and developing strategies to compete in the global marketplace, these members of unit 61398 spent their business days in Shanghai stealing the fruits of our labour." Last year, cyber-defence company Mandiant published a report on a Chinese military unit the firm said was behind the vast majority of significant attacks on American federal agencies and companies. FBI officials said the hacking between 2006-14 caused "significant losses" at the companies and that there were likely to be many more victims. In March, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon planned to more than triple its cyber-security capabilities in the next few years to defend against such internet attacks. US President Barack Obama has called cyber attacks a "real threat" to US security and its economy. Source.. http://www.bbc.com /news/world-us-canada-27477601