Intel latest to claim January hacking attack

Chipmaker Intel has become the latest company to admit being targeted for a system intrusion earlier this year.

The company said on Tuesday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it was the target of an attack early last month around the same time Google and Adobe were subject to their high-profile attacks.

"We regularly face attempts by others to gain unauthorized access through the Internet to our information technology systems by, for example, masquerading as authorized users or surreptitious introduction of software," the company said.

"These attempts, which might be the result of industrial or other espionage, or actions by hackers seeking to harm the company, its products, or end users, are sometimes successful."

Intel later said that other than the timing, there was nothing to suggest that the incident was related to the broad-scale attempts to compromise systems at Google and other vendors.

Google first gave word of the incident in mid-January when it announced its intentions to pull its business in China. The company alleged that groups within the company had attempted to compromise systems at its facilities and those of at least twenty other countries.

Adobe later said that it too had been targeted by attackers and that the culprits were believed to be connected to the Google attack.

China has since denied the allegations.