US government accuses China and Russia of cyber espionage

US government intelligence officials have confirmed that hackers backed by the Chinese and Russian governments are actively targeting US companies in an effort to steal trade secrets and business information.

The latest report from the US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive singled out China and Russia as the biggest backers of the attacks, but also noted that "US allies and partners" have been taking advantage of their access to US firms to gather intelligence and economic data.

"Chinese actors are the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage," the Office said.

"US private sector firms and cyber security specialists have reported an onslaught of computer network intrusions that have originated in China, but the intelligence community cannot confirm who was responsible."

The report confirms the long-held assumption that agents in China and Russia have been attacking US firms with advanced persistent threat (APT) operations.

China has denied its involvement in the attacks, and dismissed the report as "irresponsible".

State-sponsored attacks and organised hacking operations have been a key area of focus for government officials in the US and Europe.

Prime minister David Cameron said at the #LondonCyber conference that the risks of cyber espionage are very real, while the European Commission recently undertook a joint security operation with the US aimed at protecting against APT attacks.

Marcus Carey, a security researcher at Rapid7, told V3 that, in addition to best practice such as network security and maintaining patched systems, companies should consider 24-hour traffic surveillance to detect suspicious activity at night.

The threat of state-sponsored attacks is likely to carry on for the foreseeable future, according to Carey, largely owing to the attitudes of the governments sponsoring the attacks.

"They do not view this as wrong. They think it's necessary to get an espionage advantage," he said. "It should be a warning that this is not going to stop from a long-term perspective. It is going to continue."