Top US official demands halt to China's 'widespread cyber theft'

Iran Press TV

Tue Mar 12, 2013 10:7AM GMT

Washington has again blamed China for “widespread theft” of data from American computer networks, amid recent Beijing charges, blaming US for hacking over 2000 of its computers in first two months of 2013.

“Increasingly, US businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale,” said US President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser Tom Donilon in a Monday speech in New York.

In what the American media outlets describe as White House’s first public confrontation with China over cyber espionage, Donilon further demanded that the Chinese government halt its cyber attacks against the US and agree to “acceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace.”

The remarks came just two days after Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi rejected persisting US allegations that China’s military is widely involved in hacking American computer systems belonging to government agencies and major corporations.

“The international community,” Donilon claimed, “cannot tolerate such activity from any country.”

The top US national security official, however, failed to mention his countries own efforts to wage cyber warfare on rival country, particularly the well-known American cyber attack launched against Iran in a joint operation with the Israeli regime in attempts to disable the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program back in 2010.

Yang, meanwhile, rejected US claims of the Chinese military involvement in cyber attacks in remarks to reporters on Saturday, calling for “rules and cooperation” on cyber security.

“Anyone who tries to fabricate or piece together a sensational story to serve a political motive will not be able to blacken the name of others nor whitewash themselves,” Yang further said at the National People’s Congress.

Moreover, China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center (CNCERT) announced on Sunday that during the first two months of this year 2,196 US-based control servers "controlled" 1.29 million host computers in China, making it "the top-ranking country," waging cyber intrusions into servers and host computers in China.

Donilon also warned during his Monday remarks to the Asia Society that cyber security threats had emerged as the top US concern in its relations with China, reiterating that such concerns did not include “ordinary cyber crime or hacking.”

While the top US official underlined the need for international rules to regulate cyber activities, he failed to mention “the billions of dollars the American military and intelligence agencies are spending to develop an arsenal of offensive cyber weapons” for potential use against military as well as economic targets, according to a New York Times report on Tuesday.

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