Massive Alleged Data Breach: FlamingChina Hackers Claim Theft of 10PB of Chinese Military Data A hacker group known as FlamingChina has allegedly stolen over 10 petabytes (PB) of sensitive military and research data from China’s National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) in Tianjin, marking what could be the country’s largest known data breach. The stolen dataset offered for sale via an anonymous Telegram channel on February 6 includes classified defense documents, missile information, aerospace engineering research, bioinformatics, and fusion simulation data. The hackers claim the data originates from top Chinese organizations, including the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), and the National University of Defense Technology. They are demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for the full dataset, though the breach remains unverified. However, cybersecurity experts who reviewed samples suggest the data may be authentic. How the Breach Unfolded Cybersecurity analysts indicate that FlamingChina likely exfiltrated data over several months undetected, exploiting potential vulnerabilities in the NSCC’s infrastructure. Researcher Marc Hofer noted that an outdated 2020 admin manual for the HPC3 supercomputer cluster publicly accessible online may have aided the hackers in navigating the system and VPN setup. Scale and Implications The sheer volume of stolen data is unprecedented. Jeff Wichman of Semperis compared it to the U.S. Library of Congress, which, if fully digitized, would contain roughly 3-4PB only a fraction of the alleged theft. The breach represents a major escalation in cyber espionage, with potential national security ramifications for China. Possible Fallout A South China Morning Post report suggests the incident may be linked to the removal of senior experts in aviation, nuclear weapons, radar, and missile systems from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in March. While the connection remains speculative, the timing raises questions about internal security reviews or disciplinary actions following the breach. The NSCC, a critical provider of supercomputing services to over 6,000 clients, including defense and scientific agencies, has not officially confirmed the breach. If verified, the incident would underscore significant gaps in China’s cybersecurity defenses amid growing global tensions over digital espionage.