The Chinese government was the most successful in terms of state-affiliated cyber espionage in 2012, according to a new report.
The 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report – released every year by Verizon Enterprises’s RISK team in partnership with various governments – found China was the leader in state-supported hacking last year, with 96 per cent of 120 reported incidents of government cyber espionage originating from China.
“This is a pretty shocking statistic,” said Wade Baker, managing principal for the RISK Team, though he said the team did not believe there had been a large spike in cyber espionage activity.
China has regularly denied claims its government is behind cyber espionage, recently denying allegations by a US security firm the government was assisting hacking attacks on western companies and defence groups.
Last month, China agreed to cyber security talks with the US after a war of words between the two governments over hacking.
