China's universities linked to cyber-spying

A burgeoning Chinese effort to build academic and civilian expertise in computer espionage has ties to the nation's military, the journal Science reports.

In the past five years, China has opened 10 university computer security academies that specialize in cyber-research. Chinese universities publish computer espionage research in the open scientific literature — including one 2009 report "outlining how to mount an effective attack on the U.S. power grid." Such schools have hosted hiring fairs for People's Liberation Army units, which have been linked to hundreds of hacking successes against U.S. industries and government agencies recently by outside analysts.