China

Name a target anywhere in China, an official at a state-owned company boasted recently, and his crack staff will break into that person’s computer, download the contents of the hard drive, record the keystrokes and monitor cellphone communications, too.

Pitches like that, from a salesman for Nanjing Xhunter Software, were not uncommon at a crowded trade show this month that brought together Chinese law enforcement officials and entrepreneurs eager to win government contracts for police equipment and services.

The Chinese hackers who breached Google's corporate servers 41 months ago gained access to a database containing classified information about suspected spies, agents, and terrorists under surveillance by the US government, according to a published report.

ry as it might, Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies just can’t shake perceptions that its equipment may serve as a virtual Trojan horse for Chinese electronic intelligence gathering.

For the last two years, Huawei’s defining challenge in the United States has not been tough competition from worldwide giants such as Cisco Systems but rather roadblocks set up by US lawmakers, suspicious of the company’s alleged connections to the People’s Liberation Army. Doubts linger despite no definitive public evidence that Huawei could be complicit in hacking.