Two offices of American technology and pharma companies in Bengaluru were targeted by hackers believed to be from China.
According to a report in the Economic Times, the attacks from the Chinese hackers took place between the last week of September and the first week of October.
While there is no information on the extend of the loss, it is suspected that financial information and trademark-related data may have been stolen during the cyber attack by the Chinese hackers.
The names of the two American companies have not been released yet. The ET report said China may have shifted its focus from companies in the US and could be targeting American businesses in countries such as India.
Since the September visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping to the US, it was being reported that US and China have agreed on not to use "cyber spies" for stealing economic data from each other.
However, according to Graham Webster, a senior fellow of the China Centre at Yale Law School, despite the "conversations on cybersecurity between US and Chinese representatives" being a "significant step," there was not yet public evidence of broader progress or a US "win."
According to Peter Navarro of Real Clear Defense, Chinese state-sponsored hacking is under full control of the People's Liberation Army, and its mainly focused on stealing information related to industries and military.
On the industrial front, the cyber thieves target blueprints, research and development, and proprietary manufacturing processes of American businesses — large and small. Even emails and contacts lists are vacuumed up.
Similarly, on the military front, the Chinese hackers have stolen information on weapons systems such as the the F-35 stealth fighter, which China now has cloned to build its fifth-generation fighter J-31.
