New York (CNN) Chinese hackers acquired and used National Security Agency hacking tools in 2016 and used them to carry out cyberattacks, a new report has found.

In the report, the cybersecurity company Symantec claims that a Chinese hacker group associated with Chinese government intelligence conducted a hacking campaign using a tool that at the time was only known to be the property of the NSA.

Though Symantec doesn't name particular agencies in its report, the Chinese group in question was an arm of China's Ministry of State Security in Guangzhou, which went dark after the US Department of Justice indicted three of its members in November 2017.

While Chinese government hackers are prolific spies around the world, they apparently only used their NSA tool sparingly.

"When they were in action, they were pretty noisy, they hit a lot of targets," Eric Chien, a fellow at Symantec, told CNN.

Read More