Hackers Claim Breach of China’s Supercomputing Hub, Stealing 10PB of Sensitive Military Data | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacker

The Tianjin-based National Supercomputing Center is widely considered one of China’s most important scientific computing facilities. The center hosts advanced computing infrastructure used to run large-scale simulations, engineering models, and scientific calculations for state-owned enterprises, universities, and defense research institutes.

According to the X account “Lens on World,” the facility is one of the largest and most influential supercomputing centers in China, serving more than 1,600 key institutions across over 30 provinces and cities. The center previously deployed Tianhe-1, which at one time ranked as the world’s fastest supercomputer. Because of its role in supporting research and industrial digitalization, analysts say the facility forms a critical component of China’s scientific and technological ecosystem.

As a result, any breach of its systems could have far-reaching consequences for national security.

Sensitive research data

The allegedly leaked data reportedly contains research results produced by some of China’s leading institutions in high-technology fields.

These include Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) in aerospace engineering, as well as military research institutions such as the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) and Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU). Some files also appear to involve nuclear fusion simulations and biomedical research.

According to analysts who examined partial file listings, many of the files are binary records of experimental results, making it difficult to determine their exact value without deeper technical analysis. Some data were marked as “public,” while others carried labels indicating “10-year confidentiality.”

Among the reportedly sensitive materials is a military research project involving damage simulations of weapons systems against armored targets, including systems such as the HIMARS rocket launcher and aircraft carriers.

The research may have been intended to evaluate the effectiveness of high-penetration weapons against different types of armor, analyzing variables such as optimal strike locations and armor density variations.

Security concerns

The scale of the alleged breach has drawn widespread attention among cybersecurity observers. A dataset of 10 petabytes suggests that a substantial portion of the center’s simulation data and engineering calculations could have been exposed.

If verified, such a breach could allow outside actors to conduct reverse engineering of Chinese research results, potentially revealing underlying parameters and technical methodologies used in advanced technological development.

Experts warn that the loss of such data could undermine competitive advantages in key sectors and compromise years of research by thousands of scientists.

Despite the scale of the allegations, Chinese authorities and the Tianjin supercomputing center have not issued any public confirmation or denial of the incident. Some cybersecurity professionals who reviewed portions of the leaked file listings suggested that, if authentic, the breach could point to weaknesses in the center’s internal security architecture.

One analyst noted that the system may lack effective segmentation between networks, meaning that once attackers gained access to one part of the system, “breaching one area could lead to breaching the entire system.” Others cautioned that while the center may indeed have been infiltrated, it remains unclear whether the hackers truly extracted the full 10PB dataset.

Netizens react

The alleged breach has sparked heated discussion online. One commenter wrote: “In China, the Great Firewall may be solid like a pot lid, but everything else is like a sieve. The authorities truly care about the former, but not the latter.” Another suggested that weak internal governance may have contributed to vulnerabilities: “This is the consequence of filling critical departments with unqualified insiders and connections.”

Some observers also questioned the credibility of the hacker’s claims, particularly the price being asked for the data. “I believe hackers could infiltrate the system, and I believe the center stores weapons data. But if someone stole 10PB of classified data and sells it for only $3,700, that’s hard to believe. Hackers may be technical experts, but they are not business fools. Would you sell diamonds as if they were glass beads?”

Previous data breaches

China has experienced several major data leak incidents in recent years. In 2022, a hacker using the name “ChinaDan” claimed to have obtained a massive database from the Shanghai police, containing personal information on nearly 1 billion Chinese citizens, including names, addresses, ID numbers, phone numbers, and criminal records.

In 2025, another breach reportedly exposed more than 4 billion financial records related to WeChat Pay and Alipay transactions, triggering widespread concerns about financial data security. Despite the seriousness of those incidents, authorities issued little public response, a pattern analysts say appears to be repeating in the current case.

Editorial note: This article is based on publicly circulating reports and commentary from independent analysts. The claims described have not been independently verified by Vision Times, and relevant authorities have not publicly confirmed the allegations.