A hacker allegedly stole 10+ PB of highly sensitive data from China’s National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, including military, aerospace and missile-related information, with the facility serving around 6,000 clients.
Cyber experts reviewing leaked samples say the attacker breached the system with relative ease and quietly exfiltrated data over six months without being detected; a group calling itself “FlamingChina” shared samples on Telegram, claiming the dataset covers aerospace, military, bioinformatics and fusion research.
The data is allegedly linked to major organisations such as Aviation Industry Corporation of China, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, and National University of Defense Technology, while Chinese authorities have not commented; according to CNN, cybersecurity experts say the group is selling limited samples for thousands of dollars, with full access costing hundreds of thousands, payable in cryptocurrency.
The alleged breach could have major geopolitical consequences, potentially giving rival states valuable intelligence and escalating cyber tensions, while eroding trust in Chinese infrastructure and prompting governments to strengthen controls over critical technologies. Analysts say the attacker gained access via a compromised VPN and used a botnet to extract data, distributing traffic to avoid detection.