US sources point to China in Marriott data theft

The theft of data from 500 million guests of the Marriott hotel chain is attributable to hackers working for the Chinese government, The New York Times claims based on reports from two sources.

The theft is said to be part of an operation to collect data from millions of Americans, which also targeted insurers. Two sources, who are said to be familiar with the Marriott data theft investigation, told The New York Times.

The revelation probably does not bode well for the Trump administration. The White House is said to be on the verge of imposing new sanctions against China’s international “cyber policy” in addition to sanctions against what the US believes is unfair trade policy.

In addition, the US government would like to sue Chinese hackers and disclose research reports describing Chinese internet attacks that the country has been carrying out on the US since 2014. The purpose of those operations would be to establish a large database of US government employees with certain access rights.

The US has long accused China of secretly collecting data from government employees. In 2015, the Chinese government is said to have admitted that Chinese people were behind the attack on a sizeable government database containing the data of 22 million civil servants and former government officials. However, the perpetrators did not act on behalf of the government and were arrested, Beijing reportedly claimed. Partly as a result of that extensive hack, the then Obama administration made agreements with the Chinese government to limit mutual internet espionage.