Internet espionage exists within the United States

The U.S. intelligence report said on Thursday China and Russia are using cyber espionage to steal U.S. trade and technology secrets to bolster their own economic development, which poses a threat to U.S. prosperity and security.--So much sensitive information sits on computer networks that foreign intruders can net massive amounts of valuable data with scant risk of detection, said the report to Congress.--Foreign intelligence services, corporations and individuals stepped up their efforts to steal information about U.S. technology that cost many millions of dollars to develop, according to the report by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a U.S. government agency.

Intelligence officials say it is part of the national policy of China and Russia to try to acquire sensitive technology for their own economic development, while the United States does not do economic espionage as part of its national policy.
American intelligence agencies, in an unusually blunt public criticism of China and Russia, reported to Congress on Thursday that those two foreign governments steal valuable American technology over the Internet as a matter of national policy.

American officials have for years hinted that China and Russia were leading suspects in the Internet theft of economic secrets, and those accusations have appeared as scattered commentary in government reports. Google has accused China twice in two years of broad Internet intrusions targeting its users.
“The computer networks of a broad array of U.S. government agencies, private companies, universities and other institutions — all holding large volumes of sensitive economic information — were targeted by cyber espionage,” the report said.

“Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” it added. “Russia’s intelligence services are conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and technology from U.S. targets.” The governments in Beijing and Moscow, and their intelligence services, contract with independent hackers to expand their capabilities and cloak responsibility for the computer intrusions, the report said. Even friendly nations spy on the United States via computers. Internet espionage exists within the United States, but it is subject to domestic criminal law, and intelligence officials underscored that the United States does not conduct economic espionage as a matter of national policy.

Senior officials in China also state unwaveringly that their government opposes computer-based espionage. In July, during a news conference in Beijing, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said, “The Chinese government opposes hacking in all its manifestations.” Most computer-network espionage against American economic targets has focused on these areas, according to the study: information and communications technology; assessments of supplies of scarce natural resources; technologies for clean energy and health care systems or pharmaceuticals; and military data, especially maritime systems, and air and space technologies.

The report is the collective assessment of 14 American intelligence agencies and was compiled by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, which reports to the director of national intelligence.
Online industrial spying presents a growing threat to the U.S. economy and national security, American intelligence agencies warned Thursday in a report to Congress that publicly accused China and Russia of responsibility for cyber-espionage.

A U.S. intelligence report accuses China and Russia of using cyber attacks on American companies.
“Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” said the report, “Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace,” which was based on the work of 14 U.S. intelligence agencies. The report also notes that “Russia’s intelligence services are conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and technology from U.S. targets.”