Particle.news
Download on the App Store
18 ARTICLES
·
8h ago

Hacker Claims 10-Petabyte Theft From China’s Tianjin Supercomputing Center

Analysts warn the cache could offer major intelligence value if real.

The National Supercomputer Center building in Tianjin, China, on August 18, 2015
Employees work in front of supercomputers at The National Supercomputer Center in Jinan, China, on 17 October 2018.
Staff members walk past the Tianhe-1 supercomputer at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, China, on November 2, 2010.
A security specialist

Overview

  • The alleged breach, which major outlets reported Wednesday, involves a group calling itself FlamingChina that posted samples in February and is offering access for cryptocurrency.
  • Experts who reviewed the samples saw documents marked secret in Chinese along with technical files and weapon and flight simulations tied to aerospace and defense research.
  • Researchers say the intruder claimed entry through a compromised VPN then used a botnet to pull data in small chunks across many systems over about six months to avoid detection.
  • Several analysts consider the samples plausible while others question whether 10 petabytes could be exfiltrated and stored unnoticed, and the full archive has not been independently verified.
  • The Tianjin center supports about 6,000 clients across science and defense, and experts say a trove this size would likely be most usable by state intelligence services and could spur tighter security for high‑performance computing hubs.