|
In
an article about a meeting between top U.S. and Chinese
officials on cyber security issues held in Washington, Xinhua
said the breach at the United States Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) was among the cases discussed.
The report did not give details of who conducted the
investigation, or whether U.S. and Chinese officials both agreed
with the conclusion.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing referred Reuters to the Department
of Justice and Department of Homeland Security in Washington for
comment on the talks.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's Internet
regulator, did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for
comment.
OPM has been under scrutiny from lawmakers and the public ever
since it disclosed earlier this year that it had fallen victim
to two cyber attacks, which officials have privately linked to
Chinese hackers.
The intrusions exposed sensitive personal information, including
names, Social Security numbers and addresses of more than 22
million current and former federal employees and contractors, in
addition to 5.6 million fingerprints.
Top U.S. and Chinese officials convened this week in Washington
for the first round of cyber security talks following the
signing of a bilateral anti-hacking accord in September.
The talks on Tuesday and Wednesday are seen as potentially
significant in establishing acceptable norms for cyber
espionage.
China and the U.S. reached a broad agreement on the joint fight
against cyber crimes, and will set up a hotline for these
issues, according to Xinhua and CCTV, China's state-operated
national broadcaster.
CCTV said a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security
declined to comment on any agreement.
The next meeting is scheduled for next June, Xinhua said.
Along with the OPM hack, officials from the two countries
identified other cases to work on, reached further consensus on
fighting cyber terrorism and agreed on programs to boost the
fight against cyber crimes, Xinhua said, without giving further
details.
It also marks an ongoing effort to repair bilateral relations
after China withdrew from a working group last year in response
to the U.S. indictment of five members of its military on
charges it hacked six U.S. companies.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten; Additional reporting by Michael
Martina and Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Kazunori Takada and
Ryan Woo)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
|
