Cyber attacks have been increasing at an alarming rate. The Office of Personnel Management cyber breach, which saw data of around 4 million current and past federal employees compromised by hackers, was disclosed to the public by the Obama administration on Thursday.
The hacks are not doing anything good for the relationship between the China and the United States. Currently, there is tension between the two nations over China’s territorial claims within the South China Sea.
The U.S. government has been accusing the Chinese government of having a role in the previous large-scale cyber attacks, which is believed to have a possible state sponsorship, according to Reuters, which cited anonymous U.S. officials as sources.
Hackers from China?
The anonymous sources said that they believe the hackers were based in China, but there is no evidence yet that they are working under the Chinese government or just simply a criminal attack. However, another U.S. official said that the breach is already being probed as a national security matter, which means that the government might be concerned that it came from an overseas nation.
One U.S. official said that the breach was aimed to gather intelligence data as the stolen information has roots as far back as 1985. The OPM computers held bank information, Social Security numbers and birth dates, which could be used by the malicious attackers as potential keys to other government networks such as those with critical information on the U.S.’s weapon systems.
Possible Linked Attacks
Investigators of the attack believed that there is a link between the breach at OPM and to earlier cyber attacks last year at health insurer Anthem Inc and healthcare services provider Premera Blue Cross, according to Engadget.
OPM was already breached less than a year ago and most of the series of cyber attacks are being blamed on Chinese hackers. As a response to the accusations, one Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the finger pointing was irresponsible and was becoming very frequent.
The U.S. government’s disclosure of the latest OPM breach may have something to do with the upcoming annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue which will be held on June 22 up to June 24 in Washington. Cyber security and espionage are expected to be one of the critical points to be discussed.
Tension Between China and the U.S.
Despite the accusations, U.S. officials said that the dialogue will still proceed, including the state visit of Chinese President Xi this year.
There has been no clear statement from the U.S. government regarding whether they will retaliate if the investigators found out that a foreign government is indeed involved in the attacks.
Obama vowed that the U.S. government will respond to attackers behind the cyber breach at Sony Entertainment. The hackers, who said that they were the Guardians of Peace, wanted to take down “The Interview”, a fictional movie revolving around the assassination of North Korea’s leader.
The U.S. government might be moving cautiously as not to further escalate the tension between the two nations. Several lawmakers want legislation to further enhance the cyber defenses of the state.
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