Silicon Valley startup takes on Chinese hackers

Belleville, Wisconsin

DRIVE past the dairy farms, cornfields and horse pastures here and you eventually arrive at Cate Machine & Welding, a small-town business run by Gene and Lori Cate and their sons. For 46 years, the Cates have welded many things - fertiliser tanks, jet-fighter parts, cheese moulds, even a farmer's broken glasses.

And like many small businesses, they have an old computer humming away in the back office. On this one, however, an unusual spy-versus-spy battle is playing out: The machine has been taken over by Chinese hackers.