Chinese hacker cyber spying

waltky · 09-03-2007, 11:55 PM

Britain has been hit too...

Chinese military hacked into Pentagon
September 3 2007 - The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American officials.

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The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack. Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army.

One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there was a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” that the PLA was responsible. The defence ministry in Beijing declined to comment on Monday.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, raised reports of Chinese infiltration of German government computers with Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, in a visit to Beijing, after which the Chinese foreign ministry said the government opposed and forbade “any criminal acts undermining computer systems, including hacking”.

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waltky · 09-04-2007, 10:53 PM

Chinese hackers hittin' Britain too...

'Chinese hackers attacked UK Parliament, foreign office websites'
5 Sep 2007, Chinese hackers have been attacking key British government computer networks, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

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Chinese attackers have launched online assaults against the network at Britain's Parliament and the Foreign Office, The Guardian said, citing unnamed government officials. It added that some of the hackers were believed to be from the Chinese military, without citing sources. The British government refused to comment on the claim. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence referred questions to the Foreign Office, and a spokesman there said he would not comment on security matters.

``We're just not getting into it,'' the spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. China's embassy in London could not be reached for comment late on Tuesday. The report marks the third time in two weeks that China's military has been accused of hacking into foreign governments' computers. The Financial Times said on Tuesday that the Chinese People's Liberation Army hacked into a computer system in the office of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates in June, citing unnamed officials. The attack forced officials to take down the network for more than a week, the paper said.

On the eve of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Beijing last month, the weekly Der Spiegel said computers at the Chancellery and three ministries had been infected with so-called Trojans, or spy programs. The report, which did not specify its sources, said Germany's domestic intelligence agency believed a group of hackers associated with the People's Liberation Army might have been behind the alleged hacking.

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waltky · 09-09-2007, 12:01 AM

China tryin' to figure how to sink our Navy...

Chinese hackers plan cyber attack on US military: Report
8 Sep 2007, Chinese military hackers have prepared a detailed plan to disable the United States' battle carrier fleet through a devastating cyber attack, a media report said on Saturday.

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The blueprint for such an assault is part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve "electronic dominance" over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea, The Times said citing a Pentagon report. The newspaper said two hackers working for China's Peole's Liberation Army came up with the plan.

Describing what is in effect a new arms race, a Pentagon assessment states that China's military regards offensive computer operations as "critical to seize the initiative" in the first stage of a war. The plan to cripple the US aircraft carrier battle groups was authored by two PLA air force officials, Sun Yiming and Yang Liping, the report said.

It also emerged this week that the Chinese military hacked into the US Defence Secretary's computer system in June, the report said. Larry M Wortzel, author of the US Army War College report, said: "The thing that should give us pause is that in many Chinese military manuals they identify the US as the country they are most likely to go to war with. They are moving very rapidly to master this new form of warfare."

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waltky · 09-10-2007, 07:53 PM

Now they hackin' France!...

Chinese hackers now target French Government information systems
Sept.10, 2007 : A top French security official has claimed that Chinese hackers have retrieved information from government information systems.

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"We have indications that our information systems were the object of attacks, like in the other countries," the Secretary-General of National Defence (SGDN) Francis Delon said, confirming a report published in French newspaper Le Monde.

"We have proof that there is involvement with China. But I am prudent. When I say China, this does not mean the Chinese government. We don't have any indication now that it was done by the Chinese People's Liberation Army," he added.

Asked which computer systems had been hacked, Delon said they "concerned the services of the (French) state." A source was quoted as saying that the French defence ministry's public Internet site was targeted, but that it contained no confidential information.

More Chinese hackers now target French Government information systems

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Foreign governments hack New Zealand government computers
Monday 10th September, 2007 Government computer systems have been hacked into by foreign governments, the chief of New Zealand's intelligence agency says.

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Government departments Web sites have been attacked, information has been stolen and hard-to-detect software has been installed that could be used to take control of computer systems, Security Intelligence Service director Warren Tucker is quoted as saying in The Dominion Post on Tuesday.

In his first interview since taking up the post in November, Mr Tucker told the Wellington-based newspaper there was evidence that foreign governments were responsible for the attacks.

He would not discuss what country was responsible but referred to comments by Canada's security service about Chinese spying activities. Russia and China have been implicated in attacks on the British parliament's computer system.

More Foreign governments hack New Zealand government computers

waltky · 09-14-2007, 12:04 AM

China gettin' good at it...

China emerges as leader in cyberwarfare
September 14, 2007 - In recent weeks, China has been accused of hacking the Pentagon as well as British and German government offices.

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When suspected Chinese hackers penetrated the Pentagon this summer, reports downplayed the cyberattack. The hackers hit a secure Pentagon system known as NIPRNet – but it only carries unclassified information and general e-mail, Department of Defense officials said. Yet a central aim of the Chinese hackers may not have been top secrets, but a probe of the Pentagon network structure itself, some analysts argue. The NIPRNet (Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network) is crucial in the quick deployment of US forces should China attack Taiwan. By crippling a Pentagon Net used to call US forces, China gains crucial hours and minutes in a lightning attack designed to force a Taiwan surrender, experts say.

China's presumed infiltration underscores an ever bolder and more advanced capability by its cybershock troops. Today, of an estimated 120 countries working on cyberwarfare, China, seeking great power status, has emerged as a leader. "The Chinese are the first to use cyberattacks for political and military goals," says James Mulvenon, an expert on Chin's military and director of the Center for Intelligence and Research in Washington. "Whether it is battlefield preparation or hacking networks connected to the German chancellor, they are the first state actor to jump feet first into 21st-century cyberwarfare technology. This is clearly becoming a more serious and open problem."

China is hardly the only state conducting cyberespionage. "Everybody is hacking everybody," says Johannes Ullrich, an expert with the SANS Technology Institute, pointing to Israeli hacks against the US, and French hacks against European Union partners. But aspects of the Chinese approach worry him. "The part I am most afraid of is … staging probes inside key industries. It's almost like sleeper cells, having ways to [disrupt] systems when you need to if it ever came to war." In recent weeks, China stands accused not only of the Pentagon attack, but also of daily striking German federal ministries and British government offices, including Parliament. After an investigation in May, officials at Germany's Office of the Protection of the Constitution told Der Speigel that 60 percent of all cyberattacks on German systems come from China. Most originate in the cities of Lanzhou and Beijing, and in Guangdong Province, centers of high-tech military operations.

More China emerges as leader in cyberwarfare | csmonitor.com

waltky · 09-18-2007, 02:41 AM

Russians too, Cold War didn't end...

Spy Chief: China, Russia Spying on US
WASHINGTON Sep 18, 2007 - China and Russia are spying on the United States nearly as much as they did during the Cold War, according to the top U.S. intelligence official.

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Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says in testimony prepared for a Tuesday congressional hearing that a law passed last month expanding the U.S. government's eavesdropping power is needed to protect not just against terrorists but also against more traditional potential adversaries, such as those two Cold War foes.

"China and Russia's foreign intelligence services are among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems, facilities and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels," McConnell says in his testimony. "Foreign intelligence information concerning the plans, activities and intentions of foreign powers and their agents is critical to protect the nation and preserve our security."

The new law will also enable the intelligence agencies to identify "sleeper cells" of terrorists in the United States, according to McConnell's statement to the House Judiciary Committee. Congress last month hastily adopted the Protect America Act just before it went on summer vacation, propelled by McConnell's warnings of a need to close a dangerous gap in U.S. intelligence law.

More My Way News - Spy Chief: China, Russia Spying on US

waltky · 09-23-2007, 08:50 AM

China 'cryin' Uncle' after gettin' a taste of their own medicine...

Chinese military expert calls for international cooperation to fight hackers
September 23, 2007 - Facing more hackers' attacks, China insists on calling for international cooperation to prevent hackers' attacks instead of blame the attacks on any country, an expert said Saturday.

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Recently, some foreign report said several western countries government or military computer system were attacked by hackers, said Wang Xinjun, researcher of Academy of Military Sciences. "It's very strange and surprising that only one or two websites of attacks are from China among the thousands hackers' websites, some officials and media arbitrarily blame these attacks on China, " he said.

"In fact, hackers attacks on China's computer system have surged in recent years and China is facing more severe situation of information security than any western country," he said. "But Chinese government never blames it on any other country and insists on calling for international cooperation to crack down on internet-wrecking crime," he said.

"The Chinese government has always adopted a serious attitudes to information security and regarded the internet-wrecking crimes as common challenges to non-traditional security of the whole world," he said, noting China has issued several laws and regulations to safeguard computer system security and strengthened its research on computer system security. He said the most effective way to fight internet-wrecking crimes is to strengthen international cooperation.

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China says it's a cyber-attack victim, not villain
Sunday September 23, 2007 - China says it is facing a more serious information security situation than any Western country.

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China has been the target of a big increase in cyber-attacks in recent years and faces more of a threat from hackers than any country in the West, a military researcher said. Beijing has hotly denied recent reports in Western media that Chinese hackers penetrated systems in the Pentagon and in the chancellery and key ministries of German leader Angela Merkel.

Computers in Britain's Foreign Office have also been hit, according to the Guardian newspaper. Countries that are victims of computer hackers should work together instead of arbitrarily blaming China, Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences, told the official Xinhua news agency.

"In fact, hackers' attacks on China's computer systems have surged in recent years and China is facing a more severe information security situation than any Western country," Xinhua quoted Wang as saying. "But the Chinese government never blames it on any other country and insists on calling for international cooperation to crack down on internet-wrecking crime," he added.

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Flashas · 09-23-2007, 12:32 PM

Well, people now are hacking money from other, not like stealing it from the bank by going there with the weapon, they steal it from their computers

pretty weird people

waltky · 09-27-2007, 08:47 AM

A trojan horse would be a whole lot cheaper than an EMP (Electro-magnetic pulse) bomb...

From China, With Love: Cyberwar the Next Big Threat to the U.S.?
September 26, 2007 - Cyberwar Menace? U.S. Checks Defenses; The White House preps new initiative to protect against cyberattack from abroad.

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The White House is preparing a new initiative to protect against what it fears could be a crippling attack against the U.S. by computer, from overseas, and in particular, from China. After a series of cabinet-level meetings this month at the White House, computer security analysts say the Bush administration is considering creating a new agency or cyberwar center to better protect the federal government's computers and find ways to help private companies and public utilities fend off computer attacks.

Those attacks, which could be just a few key strokes away, could shut down U.S. power grids and communication and banking systems, security analysts warn. "Basically we would find the lights go out, the dial tone stop and we have no ability to access our money," Sami Saydjari, founder and president of the Cyber Defense Agency, told ABC News. Internet security companies, such as Akamai in Boston, are currently tracking thousands of attacks against the U.S. government and corporate computer systems every day.

"We would not be in a good situation if we were to enter a cyberwar today," Akamai co-founder and chief scientist Tom Leighton said. On most days, the single biggest source of those attacks is China. "A Chinese general has talked about how they would reach out through cyberspace and turn off the American electric power grid before any conflict with the United States," said Dick Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official and now ABC News consultant.

White House advisors say alarm bells sounded when this past June Chinese hackers got into the unclassified computers of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. "The intelligence community has come to the recognition that China and other foreign governments have free run of American computer networks," Clarke said. In addition to long-distance hacking, U.S. experts are concerned Chinese-made computer equipment could be sabotaged in ways that are undetectable, the so-called Trojan horse attack.

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waltky · 11-16-2007, 01:00 AM

Chinese espionage on the increase...

China 'pursuing aggressive spy program'
Washington November 16, 2007 - CHINA is pursuing an aggressive spying program to acquire critical American know-how for beefing up its military and industrial might, posing the biggest threat to US technology, a US Congress-appointed commission warned overnight.

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"Chinese espionage in the United States, which now comprises the single greatest threat to US technology, is straining the US counterintelligence establishment," the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a report to Congress. To underline the seriousness of the espionage problem, the panel called for immediate steps to determine the country of origin of every US weapon system components and a "full assessment" of US intelligence capabilities related to China's military. "The commission recommends that Congress require the Department of Defence to prepare a complete list of the country of origin of each component in every US weapon system to the bottom tier," the report said. The commission also asked Congress to consider providing additional funding for US export control enforcement and counterintelligence efforts, specifically those tasked with preventing "illicit" technology transfers" to China and its "state-sponsored industrial espionage operations".

Industrial espionage "significantly contributes to China's military modernisation and acquisition of new capabilities," the report said. Commission vice-chairman Dan Blumenthal said the panel found that the pace of military modernisation in China had exceeded official US estimates. China's defence industry, he said, was producing new generations of weapon systems with impressive speed and quality, in part because China had developed the capacity to integrate commercial technologies into military systems. "In addition, industrial espionage has given Chinese companies an added source of new technologies," he said at a news conference where the report was released. The commission also called for tightening of measures to protect critical American computer networks and sensitive information from damage caused by cyber attacks.

"Chinese military strategists have embraced disruptive warfare techniques, including the use of cyber attacks (which) if carried out strategically on a large scale, could have catastrophic effects on the target country's critical infrastructure," it said. A report earlier this year said China's military had successfully hacked into the US military computer network. The Chinese military's cyber-attack was carried out in June following months of efforts, the London-based Financial Times reported, citing unnamed current and former US officials. Officials had told the paper the attack was by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and that it led to the shutdown of a computer system serving the office of Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

The report overnight also charged that China's "control and manipulation of information" made it difficult or impossible for officials responsible for product safety in the United States and other nations to identify potential safety problems in Chinese imports on a timely basis. Dangerous exports from China ranging from toys to seafood have sparked a wave of global bans and recalls in recent months and severely tarnished the made-in-China label. Beijing has taken various steps to contain the problem, and in July executed the former head of its food and drug safety watchdog for corruption.

China 'pursuing aggressive spy program' | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 11-20-2007, 08:00 PM

Defending against Chinese cyber spying...

Report Cites China's Cyber-Warfare Plans
November 20, 2007: Experts disagree on the potential effect of attacks on U.S. government agencies and private companies.

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If the United States and China were to find themselves in an armed conflict, China is likely to launch cyber attacks on American regional bases in Japan and South Korea, and might even include cyber attacks on the U.S. homeland that target financial, economic, energy and communications infrastructures. According to Gen. James Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, China is already actively engaging in cyber-reconnaissance through the probing of computer networks of U.S. government agencies and private companies.

Cartwright said the data collected from these reconnaissance probes can be used for many purposes, including identifying network weak points, understanding how U.S. leaders think, discovering the communication patterns of government agencies and private companies, and gaining valuable information stored throughout the networks. Cartwright's comments are part of the annual report submitted to Congress Nov. 15 by the U.S.-China Economic Review Commission.

"I think that we should start to consider that regret factors associated with a cyber-attack could, in fact, be in the magnitude of a weapon of mass destruction," Cartwright told the Commission, referring to the psychological effects that would be generated by the sense of disruption and chaos caused by a cyber-attack. However, James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the panel that cyber-attacks are more likely to strengthen the resolve of the targeted population than to cause real damage.

More Report Cites China's Cyber-Warfare Plans

waltky · 12-01-2007, 10:16 AM

China tryin' to steal British industrial secrets...

China involved in web-based espionage on British economic firms, warns MI5
Dec 1, 2007 : In what is being termed as an unprecedented move, the British Government has directly accused China of involvement in web-based espionage on some vital parts of the country's economy, including the computer systems of big banks and financial services firms.

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British intelligence agency MI5 has sent a confidential letter to 300 chief executives and security chiefs at banks, accountants and legal firms this week, warning them that they were under attack from "Chinese state organisations," The Times reported. The Director-General of MI5, Jonathan Evans, sent the letters- a move that could have serious diplomatic consequences and cast a shadow over Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first official visit to China as Prime Minister early in the new year. The daily said that a summary of the MI5 warning was posted on the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure website, which says Evans wrote to business leaders "warning them of the electronic espionage attack".

"The contents of the letter highlight the following: the Director-General's concerns about the possible damage to UK business resulting from electronic attack sponsored by Chinese state organisations, and the fact that the attacks are designed to defeat best-practice IT security systems," says the summary. It adds: "The letter acknowledges the strong economic and commercial reasons to do business with China, but the need to ensure management of the risks involved." It further warns that British companies doing business in China are being targeted by the Chinese Army, which is using the internet to steal confidential commercial information.

Martin Jordan, a principal adviser at the accountants KPMG, who has seen the contents of the letter, said: "If the Chinese know that a British firm is trying to buy a company or other assets such as land in China then they are using every means at their disposal to discover details such as exactly how much money the British company is prepared to spend for that asset." A security expert, who has also seen the letter, was quoted as saying that among the techniques used by Chinese groups were "custom Trojans", software designed to hack into the network of a particular firm and feed back confidential data. However, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy here said that he was unaware of the allegations, and added that the embassy had not received any complaints from the British authorities.

China involved in web-based espionage on British economic firms, warns MI5

waltky · 12-07-2007, 05:59 PM

Our hackers oughta go after their systems, shut `em down...

Chinese Suspected in U.S. Cyberattack
Dec. 7, 2007 - Hackers Launch Cyberattack on Federal Labs; Investigators Believe Chinese Hackers Carried Out 'Sophisticated' Hit

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A "sophisticated cyberattack" has been detected at Oak Ridge National Laboratory over the last several weeks, and authorities suspect the hackers are based in China. The breach might have compromised the personal information of thousands of visitors to the lab, according to a communiqué sent to employees. The intrusion is under active investigation by multiple agencies. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials tell ABC News they believe the attacks originated in China with Chinese entities probing U.S. systems.

Investigators have not been able to determine whether the attacks came from government or private entities in China. The statement, from Laboratory Director Thom Mason, said the attack "appears to be part of a coordinated attempt to gain access to computer networks at numerous laboratories and other institutions across the country." Other federal labs, including Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have also been targeted in the scheme.

Livermore lab spokesman Stephen Wampler tells ABC News that the facilities employees received "approximately 1,000 spam-type e-mails with attachments" in October and November, but said the lab's cybersecurity systems thwarted the attempted attack. "As a result, there was no compromise of data at our laboratory," he said. A Los Alamos spokesman said the lab notified employees on Nov. 9 that a "malicious, sophisticated hacking event" affected a small number of computers on the facility's unclassified network.

"A significant amount of data was removed," the spokesman said. "The exact nature of the information is currently under computer forensic investigation." As for the Oak Ridge breach, the message went on to explain that "hackers potentially succeeded in gaining access to one of the laboratory's nonclassified databases that contained personal information of visitors to the laboratory between 1990 and 2004." The personal information at risk includes names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of the visitors.

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waltky · 12-22-2007, 12:27 AM

Granny says, "Dey lookin' at us lookin' at dem...

China Taps Into US Spy Operations
December 21, 2007 - China's intelligence service gained access to a secret National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii through a Chinese-language translation service.

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The spy penetration was discovered several years ago as part of a major counterintelligence probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) that revealed an extensive program by China's spy service to steal codes and other electronic intelligence secrets, and to recruit military and civilian personnel with access to them. According to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, China's Ministry of State Security, the main civilian spy service, carried out the operations by setting up a Chinese translation service in Hawaii that represented itself as a U.S.-origin company.

The ruse led to classified contracts with the Navy and NSA to translate some of the hundreds of thousands of intercepted communications gathered by NSA's network of listening posts, aircraft and ships. NCIS agents discovered that the translation service, which officials did not identify by name, had conducted contract work for the National Security Agency facility at Kunia, an underground electronic intelligence post some 15 miles northwest of Honolulu that conducts some of the U.S. intelligence community's most sensitive work.

Kunia is both a processing center and a collection point for large amounts of Chinese- and other Asian-language communications, which are translated and used in classified intelligence reports on military and political developments. Naval intelligence officials familiar with the Chinese spy penetration said the access to both "raw" and analyzed intelligence at Kunia caused significant damage by giving China's government details on both the targets and the sources of U.S. spying operations. Such information would permit the Chinese to block the eavesdropping or to provide false and misleading "disinformation" to U.S. intelligence.

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waltky · 12-29-2007, 12:22 AM

China stealin' our secrets...

China behind massive global cyber invasions
Thursday, December 27, 2007 - China is the most acute threat not only to America's national security information infrastructure but to commercial, financial, and energy information networks

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The New York Times reported that in a series of "sophisticated attempts" against the U.S. nuclear weapons lab at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Chinese hackers were able to "remove data."[1] The story illustrates an alarming fact: China's cyber spies are now a part of America's computer network, literally. It is time for U.S. authorities to be open with the American people about the escalating threat posed by China to America's science and technology secrets.

Continuous Attacks

U.S. Strategic Command Chief General James E. Cartwright told Congress in March 2007 that "America is under widespread attack in cyberspace." During fiscal year 2007, the Department of Homeland Security received 37,000 reports of attempted breaches on government and private systems, which included 12,986 direct assaults on federal agencies and more than 80,000 attempted attacks on Department of Defense computer network systems. Some of these attacks "reduced the U.S. military's operational capabilities."[2] As for China's part in this trend, one American cyber security firm that focuses on "a centralised group of activity based from China" now says that "in the last three months, the attacks [from China] have almost tripled."[3]

A Global Threat

Officials in Europe have not hesitated to spotlight China's cyber warfare. Publicly, they have been more vocal and pointed about Chinese involvement than their American counterparts. Earlier this month, Jonathan Evans, the chief of Great Britain's domestic counterintelligence service, MI-5, sent a confidential letter to 300 accountants, legal firms, and chief executives and security chiefs at banks, warning them that they were under "electronic espionage attack" from "Chinese state organisations." Mr. Evans noted that a number of British companies--Rolls Royce is one example--had discovered that viruses of Chinese government origin were uploading vast quantities of industrial secrets to internet servers in China.

More China behind massive global cyber invasions | Spero News