China lead suspect in US cyber hack

The head of US intelligence said Thursday that China is "the leading suspect" in a massive data breach of Washington's government personnel files, but that an investigation is ongoing.

The comments from James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, were the first on the record remarks by an official implicating Beijing in the hack affecting millions of US government employees and others.

Beijing yesterday denounced the allegation as "absurd logic".

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang responded: "We have noticed that the US is still investigating, but feels that China is responsible. This is absurd logic."

Clapper told a Washington intelligence conference that "China remains the leading suspect" but that "the US government continues to investigate" the hack, according to his office, which confirmed earlier media reports.

Since the breach was made public earlier this month, US officials have said privately they believe China was involved, and cybersecurity specialists have said the breach appeared to be part of an effort to build a database that could be used for espionage purposes.

The statement comes after three days of high-level talks in which China and the US agreed to a "code of conduct".

At the Washington talks where cyber security was a top priority, US Secretary of State John Kerry said there was a need to work with China to develop a "code of conduct" on state behaviour in cyberspace. Chinese representatives had agreed with these conclusions.