Chinese government-backed hackers broke into at least six U.S. state government computer systems over the past year in an operation “consistent with espionage,” a new report revealed Tuesday. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant uncovered evidence showing that Chinese hacking group “APT41” had successfully breached six U.S. state government networks between May 2021 and February 2022 by exploiting vulnerable internet applications. The hackers even returned to two U.S. state governments for a second round of hacking as recent as late February 2022. Mandiant described APT41 as “a prolific Chinese state-sponsored espionage group known to target organizations in both the public and private sectors…