Recent reports have claimed how officials suspect Beijing was behind the Marriot/Starwood hotels mass data breach that exposed the private details of 500 million guests. Tensions between Beijing and Washington have intensified, thanks to ongoing disputes over multilateral trade and the South China Sea territory, to which the US claims freedom of navigation. Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported how Chinese hackers carried out “more than a handful” of attacks on US Navy contractors during the last year and a half.
The newspaper reported how hackers – who targeted small contractors – stole ship maintenance information and also infiltrated weapons data belonging to a “supersonic anti-ship missile”.
Some of the targets alleged include military research labs at US universities.
Officials at the National Security Agency (NSA) believe that the breaches beared the hallmarks of Chinese hackers, due to traces of tools used by Chinese groups.
An IP address was also uncovered and traced back to the Chinese province of Hainan Island.
The discovery has led to a full investigation of the US Navy’s weaknesses in cybersecurity.
Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said in October: “Attacks on our networks are not new, but attempts to steal critical information are increasing in both severity and sophistication.
“We must act decisively to fully understand both the nature of these attacks and how to prevent further loss of vital military information.”
Mr Spencer did not specify how many attacks it had received, but said that the amount over the last 18 months was “more than a handful”.
Chinese government officials continually deny they have engaged in cyberattacks, despite the evidence uncovered by US authorities.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is likely to lead the US to war with China, Iran and North Korea in 2019, a shocking new report has revealed.
Tensions across the globe begin to heighten.
The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for Preventative Action compiled the most terrifying global disputes which threatened to erupt into a full-blown war.
In the top tier of the report, conflicts described as “high” impact and “moderate” likelihood included “renewed tensions on the Korean Peninsula following a collapse of the denuclearisation negotiations”.
Despite trying to make peace with North Korea, talks aimed at convincing Kim Jong-un to give up nuclear weapons have failed to gain ground.
The report reffered to on an “armed confrontation between Iran and the United States or one of its allies over Iran’s involvement in regional conflicts and support of militant proxy groups”.