Chinese Hackers Steal US Plans for Supersonic Anti-ship Missile

U.S. plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for its submarines were reportedly stolen by Chinese hackers earlier this year, government officials told The Washington Post.

The Post reported that the breaches of a computer of a Navy contractor happened in January and February, and that 614 gigabytes of materials were swiped relating to a project called Sea Dragon, along with sonar data, submarine radio room information relating to cryptographic systems, and the Navy's submarine development unit's electronic warfare library.

The contractor, who was not named, did work for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization out of Newport, Rhode Island, which does research and development for submarines and underwater weaponry, the Post said.

Fox News reported that hackers connected with the Chinese government had previously tried to steal information on the U.S. military, including designs for the F-35 joint strike fighter.

The thefts raised questions about the Navy's ability to oversee contractors tasked with developing state-of-the-art weapons, the Post reported.

The Sea Dragon project reportedly adapted existing U.S. military technologies, but the Defense Department, citing classification levels, has released little information about it.

Officials have said that Sea Dragon would introduce a "disruptive offensive capability" by "integrating an existing weapon system with an existing Navy platform," the Post said.

Navy spokesman Cmdr. Bill Speaks declined to address the incident directly but told the Post contractors must inform them of suspected computer breaches.

"We treat the broader issue of cyber intrusion against our contractors very seriously," Speaks told Fox News. "If such an intrusion were to occur, the appropriate parties would be looking at the specific incident, taking measures to protect current info, and mitigating the impacts that might result from any information that might have been compromised."

The Post reported that it did not report some details about the compromised missile project after it was approached by the Navy, suggested that the release could harm national security. The stolen data was "highly sensitive" even though it was stored on the contractor's unclassified network.