After a brief respite, Chinese military hackers are back at their work, infiltrating American businesses (among other targets):
After being publicly exposed in February as the source of a long list of cyberattacks on US companies and media organizations, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Unit 61396 largely pulled back from the networks the unit had infiltrated. But now, the New York Times reports, the hackers are back in action using new techniques to go after many of the same corporate and government targets they had infiltrated before.
There’s a danger to national security in some of these attacks, but also a clue about China’s actual, fundamentally weaker economic position. A genuinely prosperous and free society would have less need to resort to economic espionage, in particular.
China’s one-party state, like the Soviets before them, resorts to theft because it lacks the creative dynamism to compete honestly and straightforwardly.
Via Chinese army hackers return from vacation, renew attacks on US @ Ars Technica.