The Chinese government compromised computers of a Navy contractor in early 2018, hacking “massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare.” When aggregated, the information reportedly could be considered classified.
This incident is part of a larger pattern of activities by China. House Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) has said that adversaries are stitching together stolen scraps of unclassified information to gain insights about Navy capabilities. Jake Olcott, a vice president at Bitsight Technologies, said “This activity has been going on for years.”
For example, in 2016 a Chinese citizen pled guilty to stealing military secrets from defense firm Boeing. The same year, an Australian supplier to the closely guarded F-35 aircraft that cost more than $400 billion was hacked.
Wittman said, “Where we need to take the next step is to say these NIST standards have to be applied to anyone doing business with the DoD.”