Chinese hackers suspected of spying on US, European and Japanese targets

An alert from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday detailing the hacking (Jon Elswick/AP)

Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers exploited widely used networking devices to spy for months on dozens of high-value government, defence industry and financial sector targets in the US and Europe, according to prominent cybersecurity firm FireEye.

And Tokyo police are investigating cyber attacks on some 200 Japanese companies and research organisations, including the country’s space agency, by a hacking group believed to be linked to the Chinese military, Japan’s government said.