A US government agency has experienced one of the largest data hacks in history with the personal details of four million federal employees believed to have been stolen.
The FBI reports the Office of Personnel Management came under attack at the beginning of April and attacks were then sustained until late May.
According to the Washington Post the attack originated from China with the size and power of the attack suggesting that it originated from hackers working for the Chinese government.
China quickly denied the attack calling it irresponsible and unscientific.
This isn't the first time that China has been suspected of hacking US government systems. In 2014 the country was tipped as being the main source of assistance to the Sony Pictures hack which North Korea instigated.
Speaking in a statement U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff said: "The last few months have seen a series of massive data breaches that have affected millions of Americans,"
He went on to call the latest breach "among the most shocking because Americans may expect that federal computer networks are maintained with state of the art defenses."
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China isn't the only country accused of international hacking, indeed last year China itself accused the US of hacking world leaders calling it a 'gross violation of human rights'.
The country provided a report that apparently detailed all of the attacks that the US had been carrying out however upon closer inspection it was revealed that much of the information had already been shared in the Edward Snowden files.
The US Government recently just passed the USA Freedom Bill which prohibits the NSA from snooping on its own population without explicit approval from the White House. The Bill also drastically changes the way that the NSA is allowed to store communications data, instead placing the responsibility with the mobile networks.