In a blow to the U.S. defense industry, Chinese hackers have reportedly stolen confidential details on highly-sensitive advanced weapons systems, including missile defenses, fighter jets and combat ships.
The disclosure highlights the serious threat posed in cyber space by China, which has been striving to narrow the gap between its military and that of America’s.
“The breadth and depth” of China’s efforts to target U.S. military secrets are “both astounding and troubling,” Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, said in an email. “The implications go far beyond theft of intellectual property and economic security matters. They also have direct national-security implications.”
Designs for more than two dozen major weapons systems were breached, The Washington Post reported, citing an undisclosed section of a confidential report prepared for the Pentagon by the Defense Science Board.
“In many cases, they don’t know they’ve been hacked until the FBI comes knocking on their door,” a senior military official told the Post. “This is billions of dollars of combat advantage for China. They’ve just saved themselves 25 years of research and development. It’s nuts.”