China now as good as U.S. at offensive cyber: Dutch intelligence

China is now as good at hacking as the US, two Dutch intelligence agencies have warned, with similar threats from Russia, Iran and North Korea creating an unprecedented threat landscape.

The Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) published its annual report on Thursday. The report said China’s national cyber program has become so sophisticated that only a small fraction of attacks were likely to have been detected and defended against.

“In the eighty years that the AIVD and its predecessors have existed, there has never been a threat landscape like the current one, in which national security is under pressure from so many sides simultaneously and for such a prolonged period,” AIVD Director General Simone Smit said.