Chinese cyber attacks on targets in US have plummeted, say experts
Two nations made agreement to stop hacking last September after Washington expressed concerns about level of attacks emanating from the mainland
The Chinese government appears to be abiding by its September pledge to stop supporting the hacking of American trade secrets to help companies there compete, private US security executives and government advisors said.
FireEye Inc, the US network security company best known for fighting sophisticated Chinese hacking, said in a report released late on Monday that breaches attributed to China-based groups had plunged by 90 per cent in the past two years. The most dramatic drop came during last summer’s run-up to the agreement, it added.
FireEye’s Mandiant unit in 2013 famously blamed a specific unit of China’s Peoples Liberation Army for a major campaign of economic espionage.
Kevin Mandia, the Mandiant founder who took over last week as FireEye chief executive, said in an interview that several factors seemed to be behind the shift. He cited embarrassment from Mandiant’s 2013 report and the following year’s indictment of five PLA officers from the same unit the firm uncovered.
Prosecutors said the victims included US Steel, Alcoa Inc and Westinghouse Electric. Mandia also cited the threat made just before the agreement was reached that the United States could impose sanctions on Chinese officials and companies.