Ask longtime cybercrime expert Steve Santorelli, a spokesperson with researchers Team Cymru, about the many hacking expeditions targeting the US that appear to originate in China and the bottom line is: “This is very disturbing. We have never seen anything this sophisticated.”

Know this: Unlike many others in IT security, Santorelli avoids bold-faced headlines and scare tactics. A onetime London policeman, he is a just-the-facts kind of guy. When he tells you he is very concerned – be afraid, be very afraid.

The maddening characteristic of Chinese hacks: You may never know they were there because they typically steal nothing. But they copy a lot. Imagine you have a mid-sized business customer that is negotiating a deal with a Chinese entity. It's becoming nearly a dead-on certainty, said numerous sources, that there will be surreptitious probes into the company's financial accounts.