China hack sites threaten US
p2pnet.net News:- Communist China is a hotbed of web sites used “heavily to target” US Defense Department and other computer systems, “successfully breaching hundreds of unclassified networks,” according to “several U.S. officials” says the Washington Post.
Is this another The Terrorists are Coming, The Terrorists are Coming scare that’s actually a prelude to more harsh, far-reaching laws aimed at penetrating online identities and gaining information the various US administration and enforcement agencies would dearly like to be able to access?
“Classified systems have not been compromised, the officials added,” the story goes on, “But U.S. authorities remain concerned because, as one official said, even seemingly innocuous information, when pulled together from various sources, can yield useful intelligence to an adversary.”
However, another official, “cautioned against exaggerating the severity of the intrusions” saying “the attacks, while constituting ‘a large volume,’ were ‘not the biggest thing going on out there’.”
The alleged attacks have been tagged Titan Rain and, “providing a sketchy account of its scope, the officials who were interviewed declined to offer further details, citing legal and political considerations and a desire to avoid giving any advantage to the hackers. One official said the FBI has opened an investigation into the incidents. The FBI declined to comment.
“One official familiar with the investigation said it has not provided definitive evidence of who is behind the attacks. ‘Is this an orchestrated campaign by PRC or just a bunch of disconnected hackers? We just can’t say at this point,’ the official said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.”
China is a convenient “steppingstone” for hackers because of the large number of computers there that can be compromised, the Post has an official saying. And, “tracing hackers who use Chinese networks is complicated by the lack of cyber investigation agreements between China and the United States, another task force official said.” [Our emphasis.]
The possibility of hack attacks from China, “comes amid heightened U.S. worry generally about Chinese military activities,” says the story. “Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned in June that China’s military spending threatened the security balance in Asia, and the Pentagon’s latest annual report on Chinese military power, released last month, described the ongoing modernization of Beijing’s armed forces.”
Thus, “The computer attacks from China have given added impetus to Pentagon moves to adopt new detection software programs and improve training of computer security specialists, several officials said.”
Hollywood has been berating China over copyright infringements and the country’s burgeoning CD/DVD counterfeiting activities, and although the studios have been able to coerce the PRC into organizing an agency specifically to look after their interests, they’d no doubt be pleased to see China on the wrong end of a big US stick.
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See:-
Washington Post – Hackers Attack Via Chinese Web Sites, August 25, 2005
coerce – MPAA, China division, July 17, 2005
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