The threat comes from adversaries as well as partners. Allegedly, according to American
and European media and governments, Chinese actors are the world’s most active and
persistent perpetrators of economic espionage. U.S. private sector firms and cybersecurity
specialists have reported an onslaught of computer network intrusions that have originated
in China, but the intelligence community cannot definitively confirm who is responsible
because of the possibility that the attacks originate elsewhere but use compromised
Chinese computers to implement the attacks. Russia’s intelligence services come in second
place. They are also conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and
technology from U.S. targets. In addition, some U.S. allies and partners use their broad
access to U.S. institutions to acquire sensitive U.S. economic and technology information,
primarily through aggressive elicitation and other human intelligence (HUMINT) tactics