The US has acknowledged that its national IT infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber-attack and says it may tackle China on the subject, reports the Financial Times.

Speaking at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, President Bush said he is “very aware that a lot” of US systems are vulnerable to attack from “a variety of places”. The comments follow Monday’s news that the Chinese military had hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June, in what American officials described as the “most successful cyber attack on the US defence department”, the Financial Times reported.

Mr Bush added that he “may” raise the issue with those countries suspected by the US of perpetrating cyber-warfare against the country – although he did not acknowledge China’s well-documented roll in this activity.

China vigorously denies playing any role in the Pentagon hack, but this is not the first denial the country has issued in recent weeks.

On Wednesday Whitehall revealed a House of Commons computer had been compromised by cyber-attackers believed to be affiliated with the official Chinese military, while in late August Germany accused the emerging super-power of hacking into a number of government ministries.

Further reading

Cyber assault

Germany accuses China of major hack 

Russian government launches cyber assault