Inside the Ring

“Some are designed to track his movements, others to infect and investigate his home server when he e-mails home,” he said.

Another case was a U.S. computer security company that sought to do business in China and hired a group of Chinese nationals to conduct research on security vulnerabilities. The company failed to properly vet the Chinese.

The hired Chinese included “at least one hacker with ties to the PRC government,” Mr. Brenner said.

Then there was the case of a Chinese intelligence officer who tried to recruit an ethnic Chinese-American who was highly placed within the information office of a U.S. company.

Chinese intelligence agents “want him to spy on his own company,” Mr. Brenner said.

“He turns them down. Later he’s approached again - this time to say that his mother in China needs hospitalization, but the hospitals are, you know, crowded. Does he want to reconsider?” Mr. Brenner said.

Mr. Brenner also confirmed reports that counterfeit computer routers and microchips had “made their way into U.S. military fighter aircraft.”

Chinese Embassy Spokesman Wang Baodong could not be reached for comment. China’s government, however, routinely dismisses reports of Chinese cyberspying as groundless.

“[I] suggest the New York Times should not have allowed Barstow to selectively mine the DoD IG report to defend his articles - and again attack me.”

- Gen. Barry McCaffrey