A second Chinese military unit discovered by U.S. Internet security firm, CrowdSource, was identified to have been hacking sensitive information from a number of European and U.S. based government and private firms, CNN has learned.

According to the Californian-based firm, the discovered group of hackers operating under the code name, Putter Panda, is based in Shanghai's Chabei district in China and is believed to be part of a division of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) 3^rd Department 12^th Bureau Unit 61486 which acts as support arm for the country's space surveillance network.

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Putter Panda is supposedly operating under the mandate of the PLA's General Staff Third Department (GSD) which is suspected to be Beijing's primary signals intelligence collection and analysis agency.

CrowdSource's investigations revealed the identity of a certain Chen Ping, also known as "Cpyy," who is a suspected member of PLA Unit 61486. Based on the gathered data, Cpyy seemed to have been responsible for the acquisition of domains linked to Putter Panda operations.

It seems that Putter Panda's attacks were carried out through emails containing custom malware targeted to access productivity applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader.

The hacks were designed to illegally obtain sensitive intelligence data covering aerospace, communications and space in the fields of U.S. defense, research and technology, as well as a number of aerospace and satellite firms based in Europe.

PLA's Unit 61486 is said to have ties with PLA Unit 61398, a separate military hacking group based in Shanghai discovered last year by a different U.S.-based Internet security firm, Mandiant, according to CNN.

This announcement comes less than a month after 5 Chinese PLA officials were indicted for cyber-espionage. While the People's Republic of China claims the charges to be "ungrounded and absurd" and demands for concrete evidence to be shown, CrowdSource claims to have conducted their investigation, which is made available to the public, based on intelligence analysis, reverse engineering and at the same time relying on cultural and linguistic specialists.

This new discovery is likely to heighten tensions between China and the U.S. In recent weeks, China has accused the U.S. of "fabricating" stories and has already halted all cooperation with the latter relating to cyber-security concerns.

TagsCrowdSource, cyber espionage, China army cyber hackers, internet spies, cyber spy, internet security, World News, US, PRC, People's Republic of China, Edward Snowden, Putter Panda, Cpyy, Chen Ping, intelligence gathering, hacker