The Infowar between China and the US, page 1

I don't know if this was already posted, my brother sent me the link to this article yesterday, so I only knew about it then.

The Commerce Department admitted that they had to shutdown internet access on the bureau that issues export licenses because it was the only way of stopping the attacks.

Hundreds of computers must be replaced to cleanse the agency of malicious code, including rootkits and spyware. An attack against computers of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) -- the branch of Commerce responsible for overseeing U.S. exports which have both commercial and military applications -- forced BIS to turn off Internet access in early September.

"This [Commerce attack] is the third or fourth battle that we've lost to China," said Richard Stiennon, principal analyst with security consultancy IT-Harvest. "It's not a digital Pearl Harbor, not yet, but it's getting closer." Although Stiennon said he doesn't have any inside information on the most recent attack, the evidence points to state-sponsored hacking. "The continuous nature of these attacks means there is a link to a state source," Stiennon said. "The Chinese are waging very effectual intellectual warfare." An unnamed senior Commerce official also said the department has decided it could not trust the computers -- which were infected with rootkits -- and will replace them rather than try to clean them. In the meantime, BIS workers have been hampered by the inability to easily communicate with other federal and state agencies, or with the companies applying for export licenses.

Source

If this is what we know, what is really happening?

This must be a more global attack, surely they (whoever they are) are searching computers in all the systems they can get, from federal departments to private businesses, and many of those attacked do not even know that they are "giving" the information on their systems to that invisible enemy.