China denies latest U.S. report about hackers in China's Army

"The U.S. is behaving unprofessionally and irresponsibly, speaking with unfounded accusations about hacking, this approach does not benefit the solution of the problem," said this morning, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei, responding to a request by journalists to comment on the latest report of the U.S. company Mandiant, in which states that the alleged hackers with ties to the Chinese military, not just hacking U.S. networks.

The problem of cyber attacks is a global, its solution requires a constructive, based on mutual trust and respect for international cooperation, said Hong Lei, adding that the Chinese government has consistently and strongly opposed to this form of attack and on the basis of the law has been fighting with this problem.

"The Chinese side urges the international community on the basis of the project made by the UN in September 2011, together with Russia and other countries, to develop the principles and rules of conduct in the field of information security," said Hong Lei.


According to the U.S. report, China's military operates a so-called "Department 61398", engaged in the development and implementation of APT-attack (Advanced Persistent Threat). In the report, the company said that the authors believe the funding "61,398 units" of public money in the PRC, and the unit is in the interests of the Chinese state agencies. To implement the APT-attack unit has sufficient resources, capabilities and knowledge convinced Mandiant.

Mandiant investigation showed that physically "Unit 61398" is based in Pudong - a suburb of Shanghai. The division has its own headquarters area of ​​over 12,000 square meters. In Mandiant say that in China "Division 61398" - is a state secret and not one of the official authorities did not recognize the existence of "Unit 61398", and do not tell anything about his activities. Similarly, a few decades ago, the U.S. acted against the agency NSA.

In Mandiant say "Unit 61398", not only specializes in industrial espionage, but do not hesitate to create a botnet with malware. Since 2006, the division was involved in the creation of several botnets, the organization APT-attacks by 141 companies in 20 areas. 87% of the attacked companies located in the U.S., Europe or Canada. The same countries are indicated for "Unit 61398" as a strategic goal.

Inside the "Unit 61398", there are several ways. One of these trends is organizing the constant attacks on the network targeted victims, but it does not collect data. Data collection and analysis takes a different direction. Earlier, China's Defense Ministry as the main strategic objectives of "Unit 61398" put the theft of intellectual property, commercial and industrial secrets, test results, business plans and documents related to the activities of the companies, with the prices for the products, partnerships and other data that could to help Chinese manufacturers.