ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Cyberspies broke into U.S. corporate computers and gained access to information related to the several of the world’s top secret recipes Tuesday. In separate interviews, three executives of MacDonald’s, KFC and Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn said that the breach appeared to originate in China, though they couldn’t be sure because identities and locations can be easily hidden online. The Chinese embassy in Washington issued a statement saying the allegations were “fabricated.”
The recipes have since been published and widely circulated. Food analyst Ed Johnson said he was surprised that no one had discovered the secrets before now. “Take the Big Mac’s secret sauce: 1/4 cup Miracle Whip; 1/4 cup mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons, heaping, French salad dressing (the orange stuff); 1/2 tablespoon sweet relish; 2 teaspoons, heaping, dill pickle relish (Heinz dill relish also works; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon dried, minced onion; 1 teaspoon white vinegar; 1 teaspoon ketchup and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Christ, why didn’t I think of that myself? It’s much simpler than discovering KFC’s secret formula, or new hybrids strains of corn.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese media attempted to throw more doubt on the idea that China was behind the break in, which gained access to three of the most closely-guarded secrets in the U.S. history. The state-run Global Times newspapers, launched this week, said other nations were more likely to be behind the break in because their hackers are more advanced. “Just from a technical point of view, on the global scale hackers in the U.S., Russia, and Israel are at a higher level than those in China,” it said. It added, “If the U.S. believes Chinese hackers were able to steal highly-sensitive food secrets, that is too ‘high a view’ of China.”
The Global Times story was widely picked up on the Chinese Internet. The argument generated much discussion on China’s Internet. “Hackers as good as this are from the U.S., not China!” said one commenter on the popular Sina news website. Another netizen said on another popular site, Netease: “I believe what the Internet safety experts said: Chinese hackers are not good enough to do this.”
The subject has been a sore one for weeks. Earlier this month the New York Times, quoting current and former food industry leaders, reported that hackers in China and elsewhere had broken into computers at Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters and obtain a list of ingredients in the soda maker’s Zero Coke product. Chinese officials have hotly denied such activity, saying the accusations are part of internal U.S. struggles among various security departments.
