China Denies Hacking Pentagon

The Chinese military hacked the Pentagon's computer system in June, bringing part of it down for over a week, the Financial Times reports, but Beijing calls the accusation "groundless." The apparently successful hack raises serious worries about the safety of the network because it shows China has "the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system," said an ex-US official.

Germany has raised the issue of hacking into government computers with China, but the country continues to insist that it does not carry out such attacks. Most of the data downloaded from the Pentagon network was probably unclassified, says an insider, but the incident has forced officials to reevaluate the Defense Department's rules for email use. (More China stories.)