China accused of hacking German chancellery PCs

China has been accused of hacking computers in the German Chancellery and three other German ministries.

London, Aug.27 : China has been accused of hacking computers in the German Chancellery and three other German ministries.

The German magazine, Der Spiegel, quoting senior officials from the German equivalent of the Special Branch, said that the hacking operation was discovered in May.

It said that computers in the Chancellery, the Foreign, Economics and Research ministries were targeted. The information was siphoned off almost daily by hackers in Lanzhou, northern China, in Canton province and in Beijing.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) conducted a comprehensive search of government IT installations and prevented a further 160 giga-bytes of information being transferred to China.

Commentators described it as "the biggest digital defence ever mounted by the German state".

According to The Times, the extraordinary economic espionage operation threatens to blight German Chancellor Angela Merkel's already delicate trip to Beijing later this week.

The Chinese authorities have denied the Der Spiegel magazine expose strenuously, but there was no mistaking German anger over it.

"If true, it is unacceptable. China is a competitor as well as a trading partner. Mrs. Merkel has to get to the bottom of the affair on her China trip," said Ralf Stegner, a senior Social Democrat.

Merkel arrived in China last night with senior business executives determined to put concern about product piracy high on the agenda.

"We are pursuing the issue of protection of intellectual property very strongly with China," said Merkel, who refused to discuss the espionage claims.

The suspicions are now so deep that the motives of Chinese researchers at German universities are being questioned.

The Chinese Embassy in Berlin has described the accusation of state-steered hacking as "irresponsible speculation without a shred of evidence".

ANI