中國被指網攻美國人事管理局頭號嫌疑

China is the “leading suspect” in recent cyber breaches at the US government’s human resources arm that affected millions of current and former federal employees, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said on Thursday.

美國國家情報總監(DNI)詹姆斯•克拉珀(James Clapper)週四稱，中國是近期針對美國政府人力資源部門的網絡入侵的“頭號嫌疑人”。這起黑客攻擊影響到數百萬現任和前任聯邦僱員。

The comments made Mr Clapper the first US government official to blame China publicly for breaches at the Office of Personnel Management, which has files on employees working at nearly every federal agency.

克拉珀由此成爲首位公開指責中國侵入美國人事管理局(OPM)的美國政府官員。該局保管着在幾乎所有聯邦機構工作的僱員的檔案。

OPM disclosed the first breach, which exposed personal identification information for at least 4m people, about two weeks ago. A larger breach, only discovered through a probe of the first hack, compromised background investigation data for federal employees and contractors who need security clearances.

大約兩週前，人事管理局透露了第一起網絡入侵，那起入侵導致至少400萬人的個人身份信息泄露。在對第一次黑客事件進行調查的過程中，又發現了另一起更大規模的入侵，後者泄露了需要通過安全審查的聯邦僱員和合同工的背景調查數據。

Experts say that information could be used to blackmail government officials or launch additional hacks. Lawmakers have asked whether the breaches could affect as many as 32m people, but OPM has said it cannot yet confirm an exact figure.

專家們表示，這些信息可能被用於勒索政府官員或者發動更多黑客攻擊。國會議員對這些網絡入侵是否會影響多達3200萬人提出疑問，但人事管理局稱，目前無法證實任何準確數字。

China has been linked to other incursions at US government agencies and companies, and people familiar with the OPM incidents have pointed to hackers in China. But US officials had not previously named any suspects for the OPM breaches in public.

中國曾被指與其他幾次針對美國政府機構或公司的網絡入侵事件有關，而熟悉人事管理局遭到侵入事件的人士早已把矛頭對準中國黑客。但美國官員此前從未公開指認人事管理局網絡入侵事件的嫌疑對象。

Chinese officials have denied the country is behind the hacks.

中國官員否認中國是此次黑客入侵的幕後黑手。

“You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did,” Mr Clapper told an intelligence conference, referring to the sophisticated scope of the OPM breaches.

“對於中國人的所作所爲，你不得不在一定程度上表示敬佩，”克拉珀在一次情報會議上稱，他指的是這兩起網絡攻擊人事管理局事件的技術含量。