Beijing reports say a china supercomputer at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin was breached, and hackers claim they exfiltrated more than 10 petabytes of data.
Sources say the center provides services to more than 6,000 institutions across China, including defence and scientific agencies, which increased the apparent reach of the breach.
A group calling itself "Flaming China" released a sample of the stolen material on Telegram and said the haul covered aerospace engineering, military research and bioinformatics.
Cybersecurity experts who reviewed the sample noted initial credibility, and some files reportedly contained classified documents, technical files, animated simulations, and designs linked to bombs and missiles.
The hackers offered limited samples for thousands of dollars and said full access was priced in the millions, with cryptocurrency demanded for payment.
CNN reported it could not independently verify the hackers' claims, and requests for comment to China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the Cyberspace Administration had not received a response.
Implications And Reactions
The group claimed the data was tied to top tier organisations, including the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, and the National University of Defense Technology.
Those links were set out by the hackers, and cybersecurity experts flagged potential sensitivity given the named sectors and institutions involved.
The alleged sale and the use of cryptocurrency underscore a commercial motive, and the demand for payment suggested the files may be staged for sale rather than immediately published.
Authorities and institutions named by the hackers have not been quoted in the reports, and the lack of official confirmation leaves key details unverified.
Reporters noted the source material was automatically translated by AI, and that process may introduce inaccuracies or language errors into the public samples and reporting.
