In the biggest ever series of cyber attacks uncovered to date, hackers were found

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to have broken into networks of the Indian government, United Nations and US defence companies, with security experts pointing to China as the culprit.

Targets for the intrusions in a five-year campaign covered 72 major organisations around the world, including the governments of India, US, South Korea, Vietnam, ASEAN, IOC and the world anti-doping agency, The Washington Post reported, quoting a McAfee report.

The networks breached included UN secretariat in Geneva, a US Energy Department lab and 12 major US defence firms engaged in top secret futuristic weapons system, the report said.

"The cyber snooping appears to have been going on for several years," the report said, tracing the hacking to at least one "state actor" behind the attack, but declined to name it, though the security experts said the evidence pointed to China.

"We were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," McAfee vice president Dmitri Alperovitch said in a 14-page sensational report released today.

"What is happening to all this data...Is still largely an open question. However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat competitors at key negotiations, the loss will represent a massive economic threat," he said.