China shows off footage of cyberattack on US

China is actively targeting political groups in overseas cyberattacks, according to a documentary put out by the country's state television.

In the recent wave of cyberattacks taking place across borders, Western authorities have been quick to point the finger at the Chinese government, although little evidence has ever been made public, and China has normally denied any wrong doing.

But in a documentary, spotted by researchers at security company F-Secure, the Chinese authorities appear to reveal a tool that has been used to target members of political groups based in the US.

“The program seems to be a fairly standard 20-minute TV documentary about the potential and risks of cyber warfare,” said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure in a blog post.

“However, while they are speaking about theory, they actually show camera footage of Chinese government systems launching attacks against a US target. This is highly unusual. The most likely explanation is that this footage ended up in the final cut because the editor did not understand the significance of it.”

According to F-Secure’s translation of the program, the targets named in the attack tool include the Falun Gong, a banned spiritual group.

The nature or severity of the attacks is not made clear in the footage, but the software used in the attack is flagged as being written by the Information Engineering University of China's People's Liberation Army.