Rooney: Chinese Economic Espionage Hurts American Jobs, Threatens Security

For Immediate Release: November 3, 2011

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney (FL-16), a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, today issued the following statement on a new report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) titled, “Foreign Spies Stealing US Economic Secrets in Cyberspace,” which details foreign economic espionage against American businesses.

“The explosion of business activity and development in cyberspace has opened a new world for malicious actors across the globe to steal information from American businesses,” Rooney said.  “Not surprisingly, the Chinese have been the most aggressive in stealing American economic information and technology.  The onslaught of cyber-theft from China not only hurts our economy and slows job creation, but it puts America’s national security at risk.  This behavior is unacceptable, and we need to push all the pressure we can on Beijing to crack down on this illegal activity.”   

The report, which was prepared by the DNI’s Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX), is available here:

http://www.ncix.gov/publications/reports/fecie_all/Foreign_Economic_Collection_2011.pdf.

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