A prudent observer of world affairs will likely not find the following report surprising. Simply put, hundreds of attacks on computer networks owned by the U.S. Defense Department and other agencies have been launched from websites in China.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Classified systems have not been compromised, but authorities remain concerned because, as one official said, even seemingly innocuous information, when pulled together from various sources, can yield useful intelligence to an adversary.

"The scope of this thing is surprisingly big," said one of four government officials who spoke separately about the incidents, which stretch back as far as two or three years and have been code-named Titan Rain by U.S. investigators. All officials insisted on anonymity, given the sensitivity of the matter.

U.S. analysts are divided on whether the attacks constitute a coordinated Chinese government campaign to penetrate U.S. networks and spy on government databanks. Some in the Pentagon are said to be convinced of official Chinese involvement; others see the electronic probing as the work of other hackers using Chinese networks to disguise the origins of the attacks.

There appears to be some agreement among analysts that Titan Rain is organized and coordinated, but it's unknown who is directly responsible. It is known, however, that computer network attacks are like a flood. Last year, the Pentagon alone identified 79,000 separate intrusion attempts by all sources.