A US Intelligence Chief, James Clapper, has accused China of being a “leading suspect” in the massive hack of a US government agency holding the personnel records of millions of Americans.
Clapper is the highest-ranking US official to publicly implicate Beijing since news of the data breach emerged.
The statement comes after three days of high-level talks in which China and the US agreed to a “code of conduct”.
Media report says China always dismissed suggestions that it was behind the hacking.
Speaking at a conference in Washington DC, Mr Clapper said: ”China remains the leading suspects, but the US government continues to investigate.”
It is also reported that on June 5, the US Office of Personnel Management said that more than four million employees, retirees, contractors and job applicants may have had their personal data compromised.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has said that China and the US would come up with a code of cyber conduct.
He said, ”There was an honest discussion, without accusations, without any finger-pointing, about the problem of cyber theft and whether or not it was sanctioned by government or whether it was hackers and individuals that the government has the ability to prosecute.
”We need to work through how all countries are going to behave, but particularly how we’re going to work this out in terms of the bilateral relationship.”
