According to U.S. officials, hackers from Chinese government have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor.
In a breach that happened between January and February 2018, the hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization headquartered in Newport, Rhode Island.
The data breached included 614 gigabytes of material relating to research and development for U.S. submarines and their undersea warfare, as well as secret plans to develop Sea Dragon, a supersonic anti-ship missile for the submarines. It also included signals and sensor data, submarine radio room information relating to cryptographic systems, and the Navy submarine development unit’s electronic warfare library.
Since the nature of the breached data is classified and sensitive, it's argued that their release could harm national security.
The hack is said to be part of China's long-running effort to keep up with the U.S. in military technology, and to also become the prominent power in East Asia.
Recently, China is rapidly modernizing its forces in an attempt to match the U.S. in Asia. For example, the Chinese are investing in a range of platforms, including quieter submarines with increasingly sophisticated weapons and sensors.
It has also created its first home-made aircraft carrier which is equipped with a ski-jump assisted Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) launch system. The carrier has the ability to carry up to 24 Shenyang J-15 fighter jets, a variant of the Russian Sukhoi Su-33 fighter, as well as around ten helicopters including Changshe Z-18, Ka-31, or Harbin Z-9.
The news came as the Donald Trump's administration is seeking to secure Beijing’s support in persuading North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons, even as tensions persist between the U.S. and China over trade and defense matters. It also came just days before Trump attends a summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who includes Beijing as his allies.
And regarding the breach, the Navy leads the investigation with FBI closely assisting.
A Navy spokesman, said, "There are measures in place that require companies to notify the government when a ‘cyber incident’ has occurred that has actual or potential adverse effects on their networks that contain controlled unclassified information."
