Marriott data hacking roots back to Chinese spies!

The cyber attack on the hotel group Marriott International Inc. that led to hacking personal details of roughly 500 million guests was part of a Chinese intelligence-gathering effort that also hacked health insurers and the security clearance files of millions of Americans, according to two people briefed on the investigation. The hackers, they said, have left clues suggesting they were working for a Chinese government intelligence gathering operation. Investigators familiar with the matter suspected the working on behalf of the Ministry of State Security, the country’s Communist-controlled civilian spy agency. The discovery comes as the Trump administration is planning actions targeting China’s trade, cyber and economic policies, perhaps within days.

Private investigators looking into the breach have found hacking tools, techniques and procedures previously used in attacks attributed to Chinese hackers, said three sources who were not authorized to discuss the company's private probe into the attack. This suggests that Chinese hackers may have been behind a campaign designed to collect information for use in Beijing's espionage efforts and not for financial gain, two of the sources said.

Other options include an executive order intended to make it harder for Chinese companies to obtain critical components for telecommunications equipment, a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the plans said.

The moves stem from a growing concern within the administration that the 90 days trade peace negotiated two weeks ago by President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires might do little to change China’s behavior, including the harassment of American companies to hand over valuable technology if they seek to enter the Chinese market, as well as the theft of industrial secrets on behalf of state owned companies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang denied to comment directly on the issue as China is strongly opposed to any form of hacking, as told by him in Beijing .

"If the relevant side has any evidence, they can provide it to the Chinese side, and relevant authorities will investigate in accordance with the law," he told a daily news briefing.

"But we resolutely oppose gratuitous accusations when it comes to internet security," he added.

If investigators confirm that China was behind the attack, that could complicate already tense relations between Washington and Beijing, amid an ongoing tariff dispute and U.S. accusations of Chinese black operation and the theft of trade secrets.

Marriott disclosed the hack on Friday, prompting U.S. and UK regulators to quickly launch probes into the case.

The hack began in 2014, shortly after an attack on the U.S. government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) compromised sensitive data of tens of millions of employees, including application forms for security clearances.

White House National Security advisor John Bolton recently told reporters that he believed Beijing was behind the OPM hack, a claim first made by the United States in 2015.

The Marriott database contains not only credit card information but passport data. Lisa Monaco, a former homeland security adviser under Obama, noted last week at a conference that passport information would be particularly valuable in tracking who is crossing borders and what they look like, among other key data.

Such information is exactly what the Chinese use to root out spies, recruit intelligence agents and build a rich repository of Americans’ personal data for future targeting. With those details and more that were stolen from insurers like Anthem, the Marriott data adds another critical element to the intelligence profile - travel habits.

James A. Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, said the Chinese have collected “huge pots of data” to feed a Ministry of State Security database seeking to identify American spies and the Chinese people talking to them.

A spokesperson said that the FBI agency was looking into the attack, but declined to elaborate any further.