Chinese hackers have infiltrated US software companies and law firms to gather intelligence for Beijing's trade war with Washington

A group of suspected Chinese cyber attackers has broken into American software companies and law offices as part of a complex operation to gather information that could benefit Beijing in its current trade dispute with Washington, according to cybersecurity company Mandiant, which is owned by Google.

The cyber criminals have been particularly active in recent weeks, targeting cloud computing companies that many American businesses use to keep their important information, Mandiant reported on Wednesday. The attacks show how crucial China’s hacking operations have become in the competition for technology leadership. The attackers have also taken proprietary software from US technology companies and used it to discover new weak points that allow them to dig deeper into computer networks.

Federal investigators are looking into these break-ins, and government officials are still working to figure out how extensive the damage is, sources informed CNN.

This represents another major crisis for the FBI’s computer crime specialists, who are always dealing with multiple advanced Chinese spying operations targeting American government and business secrets at any given time.

In several instances, the hackers stayed hidden inside US company networks for more than a year without being detected, quietly gathering intelligence information, according to Mandiant’s findings.

This news comes after the Trump administration increased America’s trade conflict with China earlier this year by imposing record-high taxes on Chinese products coming into the United States. The back-and-forth tariff battle caused both governments to rush to understand what the other side was planning.

“The FBI is aware of this matter and we continue to work with our law enforcement and private sector partners,” a bureau spokesperson told CNN. “We encourage the public to contact their local field office or tips.fbi.gov, if they believe to be a victim.”

Mandiant researchers said dealing with the aftermath of these attacks – removing the hackers and figuring out what damage was done – could take many months. They called it a significant cyber attack, similar in seriousness and complexity to when Russia used SolarWinds software to break into US government agencies in 2020. Just recently, European airports were also hit by cyberattacks. According to a recent Cryptopolitan report, UK authorities have arrested a suspect involved in the incident.

Chinese hackers seem to be “very active” currently

The suspected Chinese hackers are “very active right now,” said Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technology officer. “We believe that there are many organizations that are actively compromised that don’t know about it.”

This is “the most prevalent [cyber] adversary in the United States over the past several years,” Carmakal said.

CNN has asked for a response to Mandiant’s discoveries from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC. Beijing regularly denies US accusations of hacking and claims that the US conducts cyber attacks against China.

Law offices make appealing targets for spying because they help government and business clients deal with trade and national security problems. Suspected Chinese hackers broke into email accounts of lawyers at Wiley Rein, a Washington, DC-based firm, during the summer, CNN previously reported.

The FBI has stated that China’s cyber workers outnumber all FBI agents by at least 50 to 1. For years, under both Republican and Democratic presidents, US officials have tried to fight this numbers disadvantage by revealing the hackers’ methods through criminal charges, penalties, and other actions. In unusual cases, the FBI has arrested Chinese operatives.

Italian police in July arrested a Chinese man who US prosecutors say was part of a hacking group that stole valuable US research about a coronavirus vaccine for Chinese intelligence services.

“He is one of the first hackers linked to Chinese intelligence services to be captured by the FBI,” the bureau’s Houston field office said at the time.

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