The German government has accused China of hacking into computers belonging to chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and three other German ministries in an act of economic espionage, reports the Times

The hacking operation was discovered in May of this year and is believed to have targeted networks in the Foreign, Economics and Research ministries. According to the Times, hackers based in Lanzhou, northern China, in Canton province and Beijing, siphoned information back to China on a daily basis.

According to comments from Germany’s equivalent of Special Branch, first reported in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had to launch “the biggest digital defence ever mounted by the German state” in order to prevent a further 160 gigabytes of data being stolen.

Investigators say the scale of the attack and the nature of the data being stolen – which has not been revealed – indicate that the operation was steered by the Chinese State.

The allegations, which have emerged during chancellor Merkel’s trip to Beijing this week, have been strenuously denied by the Chinese authorities.

According to security specialists, a major proportion of global hacking attacks and Trojans can be traced back to IP addresses in China, which represents one of single greatest security threats to both government-run and private IT networks globally.

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