A member of the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday that his office's computers -- and those of other members -- were compromised nearly two years ago, allegedly by the People's Republic of China.

In a speech on the House floor calling for greater protection of Congressional computer systems, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA, told other legislators that outside attackers first infiltrated the computers of his foreign policy advisor and human-rights staff person and later moved on to the computers of his chief-of-staff, legislative director and judiciary staff person. House Information Resources and FBI officials told the congressman that the attacks came from computers located in China.

"My suspicion is that I was targeted by Chinese sources because of my long history of speaking out about China's abysmal human rights record," Wolf said, according to a transcript of his speech. "My office's computers were cleaned and returned to me by House Information Resources, but ever since this happened, I have been deeply concerned that this institution is not adequately aware of or protected from these types of threats."

China has been implicated in a number of attacks against U.S. government systems, including those of the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy and Homeland Security. Other nations -- including Germany, Belgium, India and the United Kingdom -- have also accused the Chinese of espionage activities using the Internet. Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have held hearing over the increasing number of attacks and the state of the U.S. government's network defenses.

In the most recently-announced attacks, the online intruders managed to pilfer all of data on the compromised computers, including information on Chinese political dissidents and human-rights activists around the world, Rep. Wolf told the House. In addition, the lawmaker claimed that the systems of other members of the House have been attacked in a similar manner.

One other legislator -- Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-NJ, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- said his office had been affected as well, according to media reports. Smith, however, stressed that the evidence implicating Chinese involvement was circumstantial.

"This doesn't absolutely prove Beijing was behind the attack," he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "But it raises very serious concern that it was."

Rep. Wolf said the attacks should be considered a wake up call for the United States.

"We cannot afford to look the other way when foreign sources are threatening to compromise our government institutions, our economy, our very way of life through cyber espionage," he said. "We cannot sit by and watch."

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