China is stealing “massive amounts” of data
from Western companies and Iran has stolen
data from some 200 universities, the top U.S.
cybersecurity diplomat said Wednesday.
Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary
of state for cyber and international
communications, said in Paris that the data theft
“happens on a regular basis.”
Over the last few years, the Chinese
“compromised the largest of the global service
providers and cloud providers ... and they use
that to gain access to the corporate databases of
major, large companies,” he told reporters. The
stolen data is “in some cases” given to private
industry within China “to compete against” the
companies they stole from, Strayer said.
“So that happens on a regular basis,” he added.
Strayer was in Paris along with a Justice
Department official to convince France not to