Chinese hackers said to target US law firms, including Williams & Connolly, NYT reports

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington field office is investigating a series of alleged infiltrations of prominent U.S. law firms by Chinese hackers, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing two people briefed on the matter.

One of those firms, Williams & Connolly, told Reuters that hackers had gained access to some of its computer systems, but didn’t cite China as the source of the attacks.

Williams & Connolly said a small number of its attorney email accounts were accessed “by leveraging what is known as a zero-day attack.”

“Importantly, there is no evidence that confidential client data was extracted from any other part of our I.T. system, including from databases where client files are stored,” the firm said.

It said it had taken steps to block the threat, adding that there is no evidence of any unauthorized traffic on its network.

The FBI and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

U.S. officials have complained about China-linked hacking activity for decades, alleging that many of the attacks are focused on stealing intellectual property belonging to American companies.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Don Durfee and Tom Hogue)