A potentially “catastrophic” breach of a major US-based cybersecurity provider has been blamed on state-backed hackers from China, according to people familiar with the matter.

Seattle-based F5 Inc. disclosed on Wednesday morning in a regulatory filing that nation-state hackers had breached its networks and gained “long-term, persistent access” to certain systems. The intruders stole files including portions of source code from the company’s BIG-IP suite of application services, which are widely used by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, in addition to details about some flaws that could be used to target the company’s customers.

One of the people said F5 Chief Executive Officer François Locoh-Donou is personally briefing customers about the timeline and the China-linked hack

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