Republicans are criticizing the Obama administration for not taking a
firmer stance against China after the cyberattack on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that saw more than 4 million records compromised.
At a press conference in Germany on Tuesday, President Barack Obama discussed the breach but did not make specific mention of China.
"We haven't publicly unveiled who we think may have engaged in these cyberattacks," Obama said. "But I can tell you that we have known for a long time that there are significant vulnerabilities and that these vulnerabilities are going to accelerate as time goes by, both in systems within government and within the private sector."
Several 2016 Republican contenders are pushing for the president to take a stronger approach,
Politico reported.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the U.S. "should hack the cellphones of some prominent Communist party leaders, hack the bank accounts of intelligence officials, publicly humiliate Chinese families for political corruption, or wipe out a few critical Chinese computer systems."
He added, "When you tolerate bad behavior and bullying, you get more of it."
South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham warned on Facebook of a "cyber 'Pearl Harbor'" if the country doesn't improve its defenses.
"I fear the massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management may turn out to be yet another example of America being walked over by rivals and adversaries," Graham wrote, according to Politico.
Other lawmakers, including Democrats, have issued similar concerns.
"I'm increasingly concerns about China's willingness to compromise our networks and steal our information. And, wherever possible, we should bring that out in the light of day and call it what it is," Rhode Island Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin told Politico.
Meanwhile, the FBI has indicated that multiple hacker groups carried out the cyberattack on the agency.
"The FBI has obtained information regarding cyber actors who have compromised and stolen sensitive business information and personally identifiable information (PII)," said a Flash alert dated June 5, according to
The Washington Free Beacon. "Information obtained from victims indicates that PII was a priority target."
The attack on OPM was unprecedented in its size and scope, and is believed to be one of the largest breaches of government personnel data in history.
Last week, security analysts familiar with the breach said
two groups of Chinese state-sponsored hackers were responsible for it, including one linked to the Chinese military that has been dubbed "Deep Panda."
Deep Panda was linked in the past to
hacking healthcare provider Anthem, an attack that compromised the records of 80 million customers.
China has said that claims about its involvement in both attacks are groundless.
The FBI did not directly link its warning to the OPM breach but said its cyber investigators have "high confidence" about the threat posed by the cyberattackers based on its investigation, the Beacon said.
The alert said that stolen personal data "has been used in other instances to target or otherwise facilitate various malicious activities such as financial fraud, though the FBI is not aware of such activity by these groups."
The alert also revealed that a software called Sakula was used by the hackers. It uses stolen, signed security certificates to gain unauthorized access to networks, and analysts say that the sophistication of the technique suggests it was carried out by nation-state cyber forces, the Beacon said.
"Any activity related to these groups detected on a network should be considered an indication of a compromise requiring extensive mitigation and contract with law enforcement," the FBI notice said, according to the Beacon.