so what if China's sending espionage stuff over the internet? I'm sure everyone does. Think about it: why send spies to their countries when you can get all their information from the safety and comfort of your own home? Besides, i don't doubt for a minute that the Americans and British don't already have a simular project with outrageous funding.

TG, Melbourne,

Why not consider using secure collaborative applications like Groove more info check out www.elastictime.com

Paula Grady, Fareham, Hants

Well Peter, in Berlin, if they don't want to pay then they'll get hacked.

Cybercop, Alaska, USA

Well, I certainly hope we are hacking them back.

razrlazr, Detroit, USA

Why Don't they keep important secrets on a internal network instead of the internet? Then stream usless or misleading data publically in between necessary on-line usage.

Tim, Valencia, California

Businesses should not only be concerned about what gets through their firewalls but also think about what they put up on their public web sites. The Chinese are notorious collectors of all tidbits of information. Compilation of these bits of information will result in a compromise of proprietary data crucial to maintaining a company's bottom line. There is an inordinate amount of information out there in the public domain and traveling through the internet without the benefit of encryption..

Fred, Henderson, Nevada

The Air Force Cyber Command is the most exciting, highest funded, and fastest growing cyber-warfare unit on Earth. It is headed by a general and is being given just as much respect as any other branch of the US military. I predict that it will be the most important, sophisticated, and top-secret fighting force in the entire US military within a decade. Let the Cyber Cold War begin.

James Jones, Columbus, Ohio

only way you the west can protect itself from the chinese cyber war strategy, is outsource cyber protection services to India.

Indian it companies are 50 years ahead of china, and already have infilitrared every chinese supercomputer, defense, commerical computer related systems.

the chinese know this and are unable to stop indian software and computer talent.

the west must use india just like it did during the y2k crisis

James Madison, Newyork, USA

We need to encourage more immigration of foreigners from China to the UK. Only through massive immigration along with generous free education assistance to improve China's computer literacy can this problem be solved.

frank, los angeles, USA

The Chinese have been actively creating this network for years and anyone who thought they were just the friendly Wal Mart is nuts. They also send young foreign exchange students to math and science institutes and each just asks for help on a small portion to the solution of a equation, and then they put it all together. They could not have come this far technologically if they haven't stolen vital arms, science and engineering info. They think we are spoiled and lazy. Are we sleeping while all of this is going on?

Frances Carlson, Santa Clarita,, CA USA

Of course, Peter. Firms don't wish to spend the money to protect their data and systems...
They'd much rather suffer the consequences of successful data theft and compromised systems.

You know how those "evil" corporations are!

Randy, temperance, MI

Actually, Bill from Toronto, the Chinese were fighting the Japs for 4 long years befiore the US entered the war - and only after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. And unlke the French who succumbed to the Germans after 2 weeks, Japan was never able to conquer China even after 8 years (1937-1945), and the Chinese government , moved inland to the wartime capital of Chungking, never had to oprate out of a suite of offices in Whitehall like the .European govts- in-exile.

But what does this have to do with anything ? Are you saying that the Chinese should have been "whipped" by the Japanese? And if you are saying that, then did the French deserve to be well and truly "whipped" by the Germans? In your eyes, does that prove German civilization is superior to French ? Were you rooting for the Japs in WW II ? What exactly is your point?

Alex Lewis, Los Angleles, California

I have made a hobby out of watching China development and habits for over 40 years. They are pre-staging a take over of Tiawan militarily. We see the probing into the food markets, internet and business. . China is gaging our responses. Their military is spending enormous amounts of monies on new equipment. A s soon as the Olympics are over in 2008 .....China will calculate that world opinion is on their side..... They will unlease their N Korean pet and tie up the US and British thinned out Military ....that is when Taiwan will be up for grabs. This is a long term stategy for a country that highly values what they call Face. Taiwan is the main objective......China concludes that they can take on the World with a Neutral Russia. They can obsorb any Economic onslaught. I had business dealing with them years ago.....they sincelery believe that Business can go on with all non combatant countries in case of a war for Tiawan. Oil will be their next rues.

Rick, northcounty, USA

Paris Hiltons comment in Shanghai over the last weekend “here the future gas already started”
And I bet you that all spy agencies are hefty spying there on China, how else?
All cables from China go first to Japan or Taiwan, then to the USA and only afterwards to UK and Europe.
Echelon would not be worth all that money if they can’t filter out unwanted spying from China. on that rout.
Anyhow, I am ready to hear a another story how journalists try to brainwash the Europeans

e_widiner, Berlin,

We need a unified agency to counter and respond in kind to this sort of action. Not just from china but from any country

Aslo to the people that say so what if they spy
it's not just computers that are at risk how would you like the moblie phone network switched off

knight, aberdeen, UK

The Chinese may think we are no threat but we have Vance Miiller

D Jenkins, Staffs,

I think Business ethics are a lot looser in China. This is perhaps a centuries-established cultural pattern so won't quickly change. I'm sure they internally have great poblems with this, as well as annoying foreign powers - they must really hack Japanese company websites and data systems. On the plus side, and a reassuring plus, China has never in its long history really threatened any nations outside its bounds and its 'backyard' of Tibet and the Uighur area.

Nick, London, UK

The Terracotta warriors are actually listening devices, huge clay microphones transmitting any dissent, secretly uttered by us. This information will be used as political collateral to fuel their move to take over the world...

Grant Wyness, Devon,

Ridiculous! You just want to restrict China's economic development through this kind of gossip. You think you can success?

Neptune, Mianyang,

Taking confidential secrets one way or another? Loss of privacy?
Unfortunately sounds like what our businesses do to us.

K. Urban, London, UK

It's a shame if they have gone to all that effort. We'd have probably burned it on a CD and stuck it in the post if they had asked nicely ;)

Richard, Durham,

The guy who comes from Toronto don't konw without the China giant scrifice,the Japs would definitly stride across the Pacific and would whip Canada? If China didn't persist to resist the results of pacific campaign was hard to imagine.It is so ridiculous to said that re-arm a coutry which is the ally of nazi German and a nation which massacre millions of Chinese and Asia people in that time . Why don't you recommend re-arming the facist again?

TF, BEIJING, PRC

Should not surprise anyone that the chinese do this. What should surprise/scare people is the MI5 did absolutely nothing to stop BT selecting DSL gear with code written in Chinese to connect most of the UK's firms to the so called '21century network'. Er... hello! I mean, they're going to do it, but do we have to open our doors and lay out the red carpet?

BT Sold out, London, England

Sounds like the chief is stirring up hysteria in a desperate attempt to increase the department funding..

The maximum that they can do is to shoot innocent in subway..

Pete, Sheringham, UK

What is it with Americans? There was a report on here last week and they were all commenting on how Britian should be grateful to america because if it wasn't for them we would be 'goosestepping' and now they think that if it wasn't for them sorting Japan out China would be slaves to Japan!

Unbelievable!

On the subject of this article, China is set to become the next economic superpower (whether america like it or not) and as they have more people than america and europe combined and as america is not their favourite country, i'll leave you to do the maths!

Kim, London,

A real problem, is the 3rd world war near of us?

Ariyakuza, Mexico City, México

To those that mention we probably use the internet to spy on others - that's not the point. Don't think the article denies that - it isn't claiming (though it possibly infers by omission) we are morally better - just that it is worrying because the 'other' guy is doing it (and probably better than we are if worry is any bench mark)

We worry when they increase stockpiles of weapons even as we do the same. Why? 'cause they are 'them', the threat, the rival. We don't care if people we trust do it, just when people we don't do so.

China is on the road to perfecting an unholy fusion of communist diktat and capitalistic adventurism. That scares a whole lot of rich & powerful folks. Me, I think its an improvement over Mao, at least millions aren't starving to death and if they continue to increase civil liberties at home it might shape up as something good.

There are worse ways to fight a war, its just that some peeps take losing £/$ more personally than losing soldiers or spies.

Bradley, Blackpool,

Great, so suspicion of Muslims have now moved onto suspicion of chinese people. Spare a thought for those born here, we're now going to receive unnecessary backlash and emotional distress despite spending all our lives trying to integrate and lead a normal life.

It's fair to say that fear mongering has ruined so many innocent lives in Britain, and will continue to with "leaks" like these.

Howard, Manchester,

Is this a joke or what? Thank god the MI5 did not blame China for the 25million lost personal record

Bin, China,

So many people just don't get it. I say in all seriousness that this is why so many people consider the Chinese to be great investors.

The PLA is just using this info to make shrewd and informed investment decisions. They don't get paid too well so this the only way they can fill their rice bowls. If you don't believe this, have you ever seen a PLA member in HK eat anywhere but McDonald's?

Tony, Hong Kong, SAR China

Great, so suspicion of Muslims has now moved onto suspicion of chinese people. Spare a thought for those born here, we're now going to receive unnecessary backlash and emotional distress (probably get physically assaulted too) despite spending all our lives trying to integrate and lead a normal life.

It's fair to say that fear mongering has ruined so many innocent lives in Britain, and will continue to with "leaks" like these.

Howard, Manchester,

Great, so suspicion of Muslims has now moved onto suspicion of chinese people. Spare a thought for those born here, we're now going to receive unnecessary backlash and emotional distress (probably get physically assaulted too) despite spending all our lives trying to integrate and lead a normal life.

It's fair to say that fear mongering has ruined so many innocent lives in Britain, and will continue to with "leaks" like these.

Howard, Manchester,

i think china is the most 3rd grade country who is always busy in these things and according to me first of all they should check the human rights of their own people..
royce

royce, london, england

For protection try abstinence. Condoms are ok too.

Chin Kou, Taiwan,

My personal details were hijacked from EBay recently,
and I received all sorts of spurious email and unsolicited
offers of products from these guys!!!

I had to change my password details more than once!!!!

mcgahon, dublin, irland

David Rochester, Liverpool, UK

So you think MI5 is making it up, that there is no threat and their funding should be cut.
I think you should wake up, take the rose tinted glasses off and look at the world you live in.

Phill , The Wirral, England

Mike Brooks, Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A.

are you talking sense??? go chill and have a beer...

marina, london,

What a marvellous way to enhance Britain's commercial standing abroad! Thanks MI5!

Pierre Bernardi, Paris, France

Stop complaining others.In the world ,everyone or every country must know how to protect itself, spies exist in any country and any times.

phoenix, ganzhou, china

It has been common knowledge for years that China has vast h 'hacking factories' with hundreds of state trained hackers who constantly probed company and military sites for commercial, political and military advantage. America set up special anti-hacker units at the pentagon years ago in response to the huge Chinese threat. Unfortunately the Labour Government do not and will not understand the modern day threats posed by their IT ingnorance and their naivete and childish faux idealism. Britons awake!

JLeigh, London, England

When a country accuses another of spying, it is always a case of 'I'm holier than thou'.

Hugh, Blackburn,

I second JFH's comments!

rob, Sarlat, France

That's why they call it war, NM....sheesh!

Randy, temperance, MI

"Bill Chatwell, Toronto, Canada"
What you said was rubbish! Do you understand what is "WWII"? That was really terrible. Are you a Japanese? Please take care of your words!

Bin, China,

Nothing about the cyber-threats from Sub-Saharan Africa. Were they just rumours?

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

We should use this to our advantage, i.e allow access to fictitious databases containing false and misleading information with security systems that can easily be bypassed and cracked.

Jon, woodbridge, uk

What? The head of MI5 is now acting as a national IT helpdesk? I hardly think this is the job of the chief secret policeman.

This is a pathetic publicicty stunt to justify MI5 funding. The politicisation of our public services continues apace.

David Rochester, Liverpool, UK

Perhaps you should also state how much spying and covert activities UK and USA are carrying out on other countries by any means and how much spying they have carried out in the last one hundred years. How did they conclude for example that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? The answers to these questions will indicate whether we have a level playing field.

A Shah, London, UK

Like the king himself would say "A little less conversation a little more action..."

Conrad, Norwich,

To: sol kesslar, latrobe, usa,

Do you forget the bombing on Pearl Harbor? Do you forget the 9/11 bombing? Let them being repeated? No threat will work. Let's see. What is U-2 doing?

Helen, Nanking,

Don't buy from them if possible

K Urban, London, UK

I dont know who to be more scared of! The Chinese government hacking our data or our own government sending it to them by mistake on a set of CD's! If the security services aren’t warning us about the threat from Muslims its the Chinese….or the Russians! I actually don’t believe any of them pose a threat. The greatest threat to the UK is posed by incompetent, corrupt and power hungry leaders...not external forces.

David , Liverpool, Merseyside

And do we in the West spy on China?

Martin, London , GB

To Mike Brooks:

I guess you are a Red-Indian and a native of America and that you are not an immigrant in any sense.

Damodar, London,

Well we could just block all IP requests coming from China, we did that with Russia a number of years ago as they generated most of the fraudulent requests.

Also, anyone remember the articles from a few years ago where all emails, faxes and phones of the UK and Europe are being monitored by the Americans and it was alleged that information was assisting American companies. But that not really a problem as they hold the same values as us.

Kris, London,

And the second largest ethnic group of immigrants into the UK last year were..... Chinese

TG, Newark,

INteresting. Not so long ago America's NSA tapped a BAEsystems hotel phone and passed on the Airbus fax details to Boeing. This was a clear attempt to undermine a European company in competition for an airline order. Menwith Hill was used to monitor the fax.

Paul Davis, York, uk

proof ! you don't see it you dont believe it.
unbelievable, alot people are so easily to be brain-washed by the media.
It seems UK start following German' steps now.

Jacky, Guildford,

As for the article itself, I can understand the alarm. However, do people really think the USA and Britain are not amongst the "120 other countries" involved in internet-enabled spying operations as well as conventional espionage?
i agree with what he said

marjorie, chizhou , China

This is uncanny...The other day, my local Chinese restaurant knew what I wanted to order before I had even opened my mouth.

tim, haywards heath, uk,

Japan is an independent country! It is not up to the USA or Britain to "let Japan rearm". Japan already has one of the largest, most modern and powerful navies in the world. Check it out on the Internet!

With many nuclear reactors, and a very large scientific community, Japan, if it should so desire, could easily aquire nuclear weapons...if it does not already possess them! Japan is, however, protected by the USA's "nuclear umbrella" (The USA's Pacific Fleet) and therefore does not, ostensibly, need a nuclear arsenal.

Obviously, any military confrontation between China nad Japan today would have the potential to be mutually suicidal, and is therefore not likely to occur.
The priorities of both countries are to maintain and to improve the standard of living of their peoples. Would that ALL nations held those priorities!

The Chinese are very smart and pragmatic people - obviously! They are in the process of showing the world that they are a great Capitalist nation!

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

What is the problem? Espionage have always been part of a countries' intel op. Or are you telling countries that internet spying is off limit?

There are morons who think that arming Japan to deter China would be a solution [sigh] - better help Japan with developing nuclear weapons that will really put the fear of god into the Chinese - oops sorry their god is the same god the Japanese, the Americans and the British pray to - money!!!

S KLin, Hongkong,

Rather than talking about war and bombing everybody, why not just make our systems more secure? That goes for everyone, not just us here in the U.S. This is why I'm studying Computer Science with a specialization in information assurance (data & system security). I graduate this May. I think I will find a job quickly! :-)

Mike, New York, New York, USA

The first comment here makes the most sense. All's fair in business and war. The worst mistake any country can make is to underestimate China.

BJD, London, UK

And just remember, it isn't only China, it's India and Russia, too. In the U.S. we have issued millions of H1-B visas and no one knows how many L-1 visas. Every one of these workers displaces an American worker. They work on some of the most sensitive defense contracts, work with all of our latest and best technology, work with every bit of our infrastructure. And all of that knowledge is sold and traded on the international market. We know of Indian gangs stealing plans for our stealth fighters and radar systems, shoulder launched missiles, nuclear technology, because they sold them to Russia and Iran. Politicians and businesses need to made to answer for endangering our entire countries for the sake of cheap foreign labor, tax payer subsidized cheap labor and lose of jobs! End outsourcing. End guest worker visas. Jail the "Free Traitors".

Mike Brooks, Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A.

For your information.. the world is not stable.. and therefore cannot be further destablized.

peter, petrelli, USA

The threat of electronic warfare is far understated in this, and many other articles. The mainstream press' and general population's ignorance of the severe vulnerability of an increasingly electronic global economy is startling. Consider this brief hypothetical: 1) Electronic (Cyber) attack on U.S. financial instutions; 2) Day 3- financial institutions close doors, 3) Day 7- financial institution databases completely compromised; 4) Day 14- United States economy completely paralyzed as citizens are no longer able to access or withdraw funds from commercial banking institutions. Day 16) Run on banks similar to Black Tuesday. Day 21) Martial Law declared as hundreds of millions panic. Day 45)- Pentagon officials make anticipated announcement- financial information unrecoverable. Day 90)- Global Economy ceases to exist as we now know it... Day 180) China issues statement of information recovery and creation of only functioning internet technology financial system...all info route

Noah Daniel, Whitefish Bay, United States of America / Wisconsin

all you have to remember when doing business here is that you are a target, play the game the same way and you'll be ok, try to be mr nice and you will be laughed at, and you will loose read the art of war sun tzu to find out how the chinese do business

Terry, Hull, UK

Give Japan the bomb. Now.

No one could me more trusted to use it responsibly for deterrance, and the PRC has made their expansionist goals more than clear to anyone whose head is not buried in the sand.

So long as the generals in the PLA think that "America will not sacrifice Los Angeles for Taipei" the PRC will think they can bully the rest of Asia.

Western democracies... wake up! The PRC is a nuclear armed post-Meiji Japan. Contain and deter them now or send your children to fight them in 20 years.

JFH, MI, USA

Let China waste there money. All big goverments do. It took them 50 years of spying just to get the first flush toilets going in the last few years. Over all I believe China to be a very cool place, the people very warm and freindly and hard working, BUT, China's outdated commie controll freak KGB style leadership allways trumps anything good one might have to say.

Ben, Cleveland, USA

I just don't get it. This festering computer security problem. Is everyone using their pet's names as passwords, even in missile launch control systems? Is everybody a panting sucker to open funny emails after being told a thousand times to be careful. Is everybody a stupid dupe for social engineering attacks? Can someone raise Alan Turing from the dead so we can get some superior brain power to straighten out this idiotic mess?

Maybe I'm all wrong. This could really just be playing along cat-and-mouse style so the enemy is kept up close and familiar.
Lock them out, and the dangerous element of surprise grows.

I have no clue.

Phil, Nashville, TN

Bill Chatwell> Re-arming Japan would not keep China in check. It would destabilise the entire Asia region because China and other Asian countries would use it as an excuse to "re-arm" (e.g. North Korea and even South Korea). And then what would we do?
As for the article itself, I can understand the alarm. However, do people really think the USA and Britain are not amongst the "120 other countries" involved in internet-enabled spying operations as well as conventional espionage? In fact, the USA used cyber war tactics during the Iraq wars (particularly the first). Perhaps the article could have presented an even more balanced view by including this angle as well?

NM, London, England

How sad for the Brits, they cant do a thing about this, because if they change their laws to make this ilegal it will only expose their own similar spy ops in China.

Albert Kyder, Kingston, Norfolk

hear, hear, Bill of toronto, how soon they forget... This addition to, denying u.s ships port access on two occasions,and sundry other transgressions, I smell an olympic boycott, hit them where it hurts

sol kesslar, latrobe, usa

We need to let Japan re-arm. That will keep China in check. Even though China was 10 times its population and more times its size, little Japan sure whipped China in WWII. If it wasn't for the USA, the Chinese would be Japanese slaves.

Bill Chatwell, Toronto, Canada

Businesses can get protection - they just don't want to pay for it.

Maybe after they get burned.

Peter, Berlin, Germany