US firm accuses China of stealing data of Israel’s Iron Dome missile system

A US company has accused China of stealing technical data for the so-called Iron Dome missile system from Israeli computers.

Maryland-based Cyber Engineering Services (CyberESI) has detected the cyber theft, according to cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs.

“Between Oct. 10, 2011 and Aug. 13, 2012, attackers thought to be operating out of China hacked into the corporate networks of three top Israeli defense technology companies, including Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems,” Krebs writes.

“By tapping into the secret communications infrastructure set up by the hackers, CyberESI determined that the attackers exfiltrated large amounts of data from the three companies,” he adds.

“Most of the information was intellectual property pertaining to Arrow III missiles, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, ballistic rockets and other technical documents in the same fields of study.”

The Iron Dome has been co-developed by American company Raytheon and Israeli firm Rafael. It is partly manufactured in the United States. It is claimed to be capable of detecting, assessing and intercepting a variety of shorter-range targets such as rockets, artillery and mortars.

The system was originally developed to counter small rockets that Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups fired into Israeli occupied territories in retaliation for the regime's crimes against Palestinians. However, it has proven largely ineffective in serving that purpose.

CyberESI believes the hackers were from a hacking group sponsored by the Chinese military. However, what Beijing will do with the Iron Dome information is an open question.

PressTV-US signs contract to purchase Israeli Iron Dome

The US army has reportedly finalized a deal to purchase two Iron Dome missile systems from Israel.

This is not the first time that the United States accuses China of stealing technical secrets.

Over the past few years, the US has stepped up measures to protect American intellectual property against what it calls China's unfair trade tactics. The trend has been accelerated under the presidency of Donald Trump.

In July, the US charged a Chinese-American professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) of trying to steal sensitive US military secrets and sending them back to China.

Also in August, then US National Security Adviser John Bolton accused China of stealing secrets of the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet and using them as the basis to develop a stealth warplane of its own.

The United States has also previously warned Israel against deepening business ties with China, citing “security implications.”

Last year, US officials warned Tel Aviv that “the United States could not be friends with a country for which China was building ports.”

This comes amid an ongoing trade war between the US and China, the world’s two major economic powers.

President Donald Trump initiated the trade war with China last year, when he first imposed unusually heavy tariffs on imports from the country. Since then, the two sides have exchanged tariffs on more than 360 billion dollars in two-way trade.

Beijing and Washington have held talks to settle the issue, but to no avail so far.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk