The private email accounts of U.S. national security and trade officials have been targeted by Chinese cyber spies over the past five years, NBC News reported Monday.Robert Windrem writes that U.S. authorities uncovered the email intrusion activity in April 2010 and initially codenamed the campaign “Dancing Panda” and then later called it “Legion Amethyst.”
A senior U.S. intelligence official said that spies were not able to hack the U.S. government officials’ email accounts due to high level of security, according to NBC.
A National Security Agency document obtained by NBC states that Chinese cyber intruders harvested email addresses from the emails of targeted government personnel, as well as sent malware to people on the their contact lists.
The report noted NSA determined that China-based hackers have launched more than 30 intrusion campaigns, including Dancing Panda, against the U.S.
