US General: China Is Hacking Us

Commander follows up on report that China has denied
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2008 6:05 PM CDT
US General: China Is Hacking Us
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows Gen. Kevin Chilton. Chilton says that China is behind hacking attacks on US military networks. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force)   (Associated Press)

Following up on a Pentagon report, a US commander said today that Chinese hackers increasingly target American military networks, the Wall Street Journal reports. Kevin Chilton, the general in charge of cyberspace, fell short of accusing Beijing but said, "You can kind of connect the dots." China has blasted a recent Pentagon report that describes the Chinese army's expanding cyberspace operations.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the US should "drop its Cold War mentality," but Chilton threw the accusation back at them: "Twenty years ago you'd have hired somebody to go in the middle of the night with a flashlight in their teeth to open the drawer and do a bunch of photography of files," he said, but now, "you can do it from your home country." (More China stories.)

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