A Pittsburgh steel manufacturer is claiming the Chinese government backed a 2011 cyberattack that resulted in the theft of trade secrets.
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The allegation follows a Tuesday complaint filed by U.S. Steel asking the International Trade Commission to open a probe. If the agency commits to an investigation, the company said on Thursday, it expects it “to reveal that the Chinese government disseminated U.S. Steel’s trade secrets” to Chinese companies, “enabling them to manufacture [lightweight steels] that [compete] with U.S. Steel’s products.”
The comment, published in the Wall Street Journal, comes a day after the Chinese Commerce Ministry said the claims were “completely without factual basis.” The ministry did not respond to the company’s charge that the government had been complicit.
It wouldn’t be the first time U.S. Steel has been victimized by state-backed hackers. The U.S. indictment of five Chinese army officers in 2014 came in response to earlier cyberattacks against that company as well as others.
U.S. Steel said on Tuesday that the 2011 attacks bore characteristics similar to others that came from China, and that the malware the perpetrators installed “contacted an Internet domain linked to a Chinese hacker group.”
In 2013, the complaint says, China’s Baosteel Group began manufacturing a new line of products based on the stolen information. “Since 2013, Baosteel has directly shipped ultra high-strength steel to the United States, causing and threatening to cause substantial injury to U.S. Steel’s domestic industry,” U.S. Steel said.
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The story paints a picture consistent with older reports about Chinese espionage. U.S. officials in October identified Baosteel, as well as aluminum manufacturer Chinalco and nuclear power company SNPTC, as China’s largest beneficiaries of stolen commercial data. The Chinese government is the biggest stakeholder in all three.
Baosteel replied in a statement that the claim made by U.S. Steel was “utter nonsense,” adding that it has “consistently acted in accordance with regulations; respected intellectual property rights; and attached great importance to independent research and development and technological progress.”
