On today’s SiliconANGLE’s Live NewsDesk Show, (see embed feed below or visit youtube.com/siliconangle to watch on demand), we learn about a real-life James Bond weapons laboratory has suffered a recent attack from Chinese Cyber-spies in connection with a slew of other hacking operations on defense contractors.

Joining us now to tell us more about the resonating implications of these attacks is SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto. (See the live broadcast, embed below ~ if you missed today’s topic, check our YouTube channel for archived clips.)

QinetiQ is known for its spy-world connections and a product line that even Q from James Bond would like. Its contributions to national security comprise a long list, including: secret satellites, drones, and software used by U.S. special forces in Afghanistan and the Middle East. QinetiQ’s U.K. parent was created as a spinoff of a government weapons laboratory that inspired Q’s lab in Ian Fleming’s James Bond thrillers, but both are very much real.

The technology and products that QinetiQ makes are used in the United States efforts to thwart terrorism and protect both itself and its allies. The best of the best didn’t stop the Chinese cyber-spies who, over a three-year operation, infiltrated QinetiQ’s computers and compromised most, if not all of, the company’s research. The hackers are linked to the Chinese military, and at one point gained access by exploiting a security flaw that QinetiQ identified months earlier but simply never fixed. The group is a crack team of Shanghai-based hackers, nicknamed the Comment Crew by security experts, and this is not the first time they’ve attacked the U.S.; notably the 2008 presidential election where President Barrack Obama beat John McCain.

Some of the things we’ll be discussing with Casaretto…include QinetiQ’s connection to James Bond, the hacking operation, the people behind these attacks and what kind of information the hackers were able to expose. What are the implications of an attack on a weapons and security company? Has the government made any effort to confront China over its theft of U.S. technology through hacking? What kind of action are they taking?

Image Credit: Smithsonian.com