Correction: United States-China Cyber story

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a Nov. 17, 2015, story about recommendations from a U.S. congressional advisory body on combating cyber intrusions from China, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a breach of sensitive personal information of U.S. federal employees and others in 2015 included classified documents.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States remains ill-prepared to combat state-backed cyber intrusions from China and lawmakers should look at whether U.S.-based companies be allowed to 'hack back' to recover or wipe stolen data, a congressional advisory body said Tuesday.

The report says China's increasing use of cyber espionage has already cost U.S. companies tens of billions of dollars in lost sales and expenses in repairing the damage from hacking.

The commission, typically very critical of Beijing, is appointed by both parties in Congress but makes no bones about the "inadequate" U.S. response, saying China has also infiltrated a wide swath of U.S. government computer networks.

"The United States is ill-prepared to defend itself from cyber espionage when its adversary is determined, centrally coordinated, and technically sophisticated, as is the CCP and China's government," the report says, referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The commission's report says U.S. law does not allow retaliatory cyberattacks by private citizens and corporations, nor does it appear to allow 'hack backs' to recover, erase or alter stolen data in offending computer networks.