Shameless Chinese hackers risk future of British companies

Isabel Oakeshott and Richard Kerbaj Published: 27 October 2013

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Vince Cable says Britain is fighting cybercrime, some of it said to be conducted by a military unit in Shanghai (Carlos Barria/David Cheskin)

COMMERCIAL espionage is threatening to drive some British companies out of business, according to government insiders.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) sources say Chinese computer hackers are targeting the IT systems of UK companies of all sizes, including small, low-profile businesses whose profits depend on just one or two products.

Hackers are stealing prototypes and computer models for patented products and using them to produce identical items in Asia that can be marketed more cheaply. Stealing the design and technology can save millions of pounds in research and development.

According to Whitehall sources, computer hackers targeting British businesses are becoming increasingly brazen in their activities, taking so little trouble to make their version of products different that they have even been known to reproduce spelling and grammatical mistakes from original British instruction manuals.

Yesterday Vince Cable, the business secretary, said cybercrime was costing the UK economy “billions of pounds a year”,