PLA accused of hacking into the Pentagon

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network that served the office of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this year, current and former officials told the Financial Times. The Pentagon admitted that it had to shut down part of the defense secretary's computer system in June but refused to say who was behind what has since been described as the most successful cyber attack ever on the department. A person familiar with the event said there was a "very high level of confidence … trending towards total certainty" that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was responsible. Both the PLA and the Pentagon are assumed to scan one another's networks. The June incident aroused concerns in the US because the Chinese demonstrated "the ability in a conflict situation to re-enter and disrupt on a very large scale," a former official said. China was also recently accused of hacking into German government computers.