FBI Director compares China’s hackers to a ‘drunk burglar’

FBI Director James Comey has compared Chinese hackers to a "drunk burglar" who steals with reckless abandon. He said they cost the US economy billions of dollars every year.

Chinese hackers targeted the intellectual property of US companies in China every day, he said in a television interview.

"I liken them a bit to a drunk burglar. They're kicking in the front door, knocking over the vase, while they're walking out with your television set. They're just prolific. Their strategy seems to be: 'we'll just be everywhere all the time. And there's no way they can stop us'," Comey said on CBS' 60 Minutes.

The US Justice Department earlier this year announced a 31-count indictment against Chinese hackers accused of breaking into computer networks at steel companies and the manufacturers of solar and nuclear technology, with the goal of gaining a competitive advantage. China has denied the allegations.

Comey said China topped the list of countries seeking to pilfer secrets from US firms, suggesting that almost every major firm in America had been targeted.

"There are two kinds of big companies in the United States," he said. "There are those who've been hacked by the Chinese and those who don't know they've been hacked by the Chinese."

Comey cited the historic case of five members of the People's Liberation Army indicted with hacking US companies for trade secrets, a move which outraged China when announced in May.