US Edition 
China used 'Dancing Panda' cyber operation to spy on Obama administration
For the past five years, the personal email accounts of top American security and trade officials have been compromised in a Chinese cyber espionage operation
Chinese cyber-spies are reading the private email accounts of Obama administration officials and other “national security” figures, in an operation first code-named the "Dancing Panda", it has been revealed.
A National Security Agency briefing from 2014 showed that the intrusion was first detected in April 2010, and the attacks are still ongoing, according to a senior intelligence official who spoke to NBC.
The period overlaps with Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email account while she served as secretary of state, between 2009 and 2013.
The Democratic frontrunner has been plagued by the email scandal, in which she stands accused of using her private server to conduct government business that may have included classified or sensitive information.
It emerged last week that the FBI has begun investigating the security of Mrs Clinton’s private email set up, in a bid to establish whether the account could have been compromised.
Neither the 2014 NSA briefing, nor the intelligence official has revealed the names and ranks of the people whose accounts were hacked.
But in the last five years, the email espionage operation has attacked and taken information from over 600 American official targets.
The operation was first Dancing Panda by US officials. The name was later changed to Legion Amethyst.
The Chinese also harvested the email address books of the officials, according to the NSA document, and used them to spread the malware that allowed them to conduct their spying operation.
Google was one, but not the only, provider affected by the attack the officials said.
In 2011 Google announced that some American officials using their email service had suffered successful cyber attacks.
A separate document made public Edward Snowden, the fugitive NSA leaker, also revealed that in late 2010 China had attempted to spy on the emails of four administration officials, including Mike Mullen, the then head admiral to the joint chiefs of staff.