Chinese hit with cyberspying allegations

WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- U.S. officials Saturday were investigating allegations that Chinese agents stole data from a laptop computer belonging to the U.S. secretary of commerce.

Suspicions have been cast on Chinese officials who some believe secretly copied data from Secretary Carlos Gutierrez's computer while he was on a visit to Beijing in December, and further that they then tried to use the stolen data to hack into other U.S. government computers, The Daily Telegraph said in a report.

Gutierrez refused to discuss the cyberspying incident with The Telegraph, saying only, "To the extent that there is an investigation going on, those are the things being looked at, those are the questions being asked. I don't think I should provide any speculative answers."

The newspaper said high-level computer forensics teams have been sent to the Commerce Department on at least three separate occasions to investigate sophisticated efforts to break into computers there since Gutierrez returned from his China trip.