The group, labelled in the report as APT1, was staffed by hundreds of proficient English speakers.

BBC: White House vows to fight trade-secrets theft

In just the last week, the abbreviation APT1 has come to represent the bogeyman of digital espionage nightmares.

FORBES: The Shanghai Army Unit That Hacked 115 U.S. Targets Likely Wasn't Even China's 'A-Team'

In fact, when I spoke with Richard Bejtlich, chief security officer at Mandiant and a well-known author and blogger on network security, he argued that APT1 is actually a relatively sloppy group of hackers, and that its mistakes were what part of what allowed Mandiant to profile the unit in such detail.

FORBES: The Shanghai Army Unit That Hacked 115 U.S. Targets Likely Wasn't Even China's 'A-Team'