A significant breach has reportedly occurred at a state-run supercomputer in China, potentially marking one of the largest data thefts in the country's history. The hack, which allegedly resulted in the theft of over 10 petabytes of sensitive information, seems to have been executed with relative ease, allowing the hacker to extract vast amounts of data over several months without detection.
The dataset, believed to originate from the National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) in Tianjin, contains classified documents related to defense, aerospace engineering, and military research. It is claimed that the information is connected to prominent organizations such as the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China.
An account named FlamingChina shared a sample of this data on February 6 via an anonymous Telegram channel, offering full access for hundreds of thousands of dollars and requesting payment in cryptocurrency. While CNN has sought comments from China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the Cyberspace Administration of China, the authenticity of the data remains unverified, although some cybersecurity experts believe it to be genuine.