Are the Chinese stealing U.S. corporate trade and other secrets through the use of computer worms and trojans?

According to at least one security expert, the answer is “yes”.

Joe Stewart, with U.S. security company Lurhq, claims that a new worm called “Myfip” is being used to steal U.S. corporate secrets. And security expert Marcus Sachs at SRI International, agrees with him.

“I believe firmly that the Chinese are using tools like Myfip to conduct industrial espionage on the US and other industrial countries that have mature data networks,” asserts Sachs.

Stewart explained to the AFP (Agence France-Presse) that “All the e-mails we’ve traced back with this particular attachment came from a single address in China.” Stewart also added that it was “highly likely” that Myfip was being used for corporate espionage against United States companies.

Stewart originally reverse-engineered Myfip for a client, and it was then that he discovered that it was stealing data and sending it back to one particular site in China.

Myfip is thought to have been originally developed to help students steal exam papers, and was later expanded to steal all sorts of documents and data.

Of course, enterprising Chinese citizens are hardly the only ones indulging in corporate espionage, if in fact that’s what they are doing. Earlier this year a huge online industrial espionage case was cracked by Israeli authorities, and closer to home the cute little iPod has been implicated in industrial espionage.