Jonathan Evans, the head of the UK’s MI5, recently sent a letter out to 300 British business leaders warning them to be wary of a possible Chinese espionage attack. Since then, the UK’s Times has reported that both Rolls-Royce and Shell have already been hit by “sustained spying assaults” from Chinese government-backed hackers. Rolls-Royce was believed to have been infiltrated within the UK while Shell discovered a Chinese spy network in Houston, Texas.

According to the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, “The contents of [Evans'] letter highlight the following: the Director-General’s concerns about the possible damage to UK business resulting from electronic attack sponsored by Chinese state organisations, and the fact that the attacks are designed to defeat best-practice IT security systems.”

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has allegedly been supporting computer hackers for some time now, and it’s thought that they have already used limited cyber-warfare as a response to recent public U.S. missteps – such as the bombing of the Beijing Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and after a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter in 2001.

Although Beijing denies any connection to the recent attacks, China is undeniably building up what Time Magazine appropriately labels a “cybermilitia” (see the linked story above). One example is a recent cash contest sponsored by the PLA to recruit the most talented local hackers across the country.

The letter from Evans shows the growing concern that western nations have over electronic security threats but, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, it is “unusual for a country to so openly accuse another of engaging in this activity – especially when it can be extraordinarily difficult to prove an attack is being sponsored by a government or is a lone hacker acting independently.”