On Monday, the Washington Post revealed a classified intelligence assessment which claimed that the US is a target of a massive and sustained campaign of cyber espionage.

The revelation came across in the periodic assessments - which are officially called National Intelligence Estimates (NIE); and are issued by the Director of National Intelligence - and appears to be a predetermined conclusion, especially since the past few weeks have witnessed the launch of complex cyber attacks, attributed to hackers in China, against prominent newspapers like the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, China is the US' biggest enemy in the cyber space. Even though the report also makes a mention of France, Russia, and Israel, it also asserts that the espionage attempts of these three countries are "pale in comparison" to China's cyber espionage efforts.

With the report also stating that a number of industries are being targeted by the communist regime with the key motive of gaining either economic or financial edge against the US, the sources briefing the Washington Post have specified that the most commonly-targeted sectors include "energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotives."

Furthermore, the Post has also emphasized that it is not possible to ascertain the extent of damage which such kind of espionage campaign can cause, though "outside experts have estimated it in the tens of billions of dollars."