Report: CIA warns of Chinese cyberattack preparations

A classified report from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is warning that the Chinese military is developing plans to launch wide-scale cyberattacks against computer networks in the U.S. and Taiwan, according to a report Friday in The Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Representatives from the CIA in Washington D.C., and the Chinese Embassy in London declined to comment.

The CIA sent a confidential alert to intelligence officials a week ago warning that it is the "intended goal" of the People's Liberation Army in China to do as much damage as possible to U.S. and Taiwanese networks including Internet-linked military systems, the report said.

"The People's Liberation Army does not yet have the capability to carry out its intended goal of disrupting Taiwanese military and civilian infrastructures or U.S. military logistics using computer virus attacks," the LA Times quoted the CIA report as saying.

"China's virus attack capabilities are similar to those of sophisticated hackers and are limited to temporary disruption of sectors that use the Internet," it said.

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