Secure intranets people...unplug these damn things from the Internet!
You are right, it's the rehashing of the same story... email systems are on the intranet (caveat: except mobile devices, which should be at least on VPN). At the most, what Chinese are getting (if anything, if the story has any truth to it) would be some stuff that looks like email dump that's planted in the honey-pot in the DMZ area. I think these stories are done periodically to "confirm" to Chinese that they really got something of value, and for domestic consumption to promote the importance and funding of government's and military technology infrastucture.
My computers are probed all the time, mostly from China IPs - it's not difficult to throw them off or feed them some garbage (depending on the mood or method of attack), most of the damage is usually a slowdown of access.
That's largely my take also. Certainly it's far more likely that Red China is simply getting what we wanted them to have. The Chicoms also probably realize that they haven't actually received any useful data.
I am not sure about your last point "...to promote the importance and funding of government's and military technology infrastructure", because whatever value such tales have in scaring up funding, these same woeful tales also have the negative effect of making people think our government technical honchos are complete dolts.
Certainly I don't feel inclined to add any funding to the already unlimited amounts that these folks already spend just because they want to broadcast that they have mishandled the situation up to this point. Instead, I would just as soon see them replaced with people who are apparently more technically adroit.
They’ll just install sniffers in Lafayette Park.
You could be right.