A hacking group based in China known as the "APT10 Group" within the cybersecurity community was likely involved in the data leaks of Japan's major business lobby Keidanren in 2016, cybersecurity experts said Sunday.

They said the type of virus detected and servers involved in the cyberattack on the Japan Business Federation were identical to those used in past APT10 cases.

(Keidanren headquarters in Tokyo)

The business lobby said in November 2016 that internal data had been leaked from personal computers. Its investigative team has found a large amount of suspicious data communications between 10 external servers and 23 infected PCs.

Feared leaked was information regarding policy recommendations, name lists for internal committees, and email exchanges with public officers and member companies, according to Keidanren.

The United States indicted two Chinese nationals who belonged to the group late last year over alleged state-sponsored cyber hacking targeting government agencies and companies in the United States.