China: No, No, No, It's Other Countries Hacking OUR Military Computers

from the on-the-offensive dept

Wed, Sep 12th 2007 4:52pm — Mike Masnick

There were a bunch of reports recently claiming that various government agencies (including the US, Germany and New Zealand) had computer systems hacked by hackers tied to the Chinese government. The details have been quite vague, and it has all the warning signs of a story that's been blown out of proportion (perhaps for political purposes). However, China apparently feels that it's time to strike back. While initially denying any responsibility, the Chinese gov't is now taking a different strategy, claiming that it's actually China that's been a regular victim of foreign hackers breaking into its classified military computer systems. Of course, the truth is probably that spies on all sides are constantly trying to hack into computers of foreign gov't agencies. That should hardly come as a surprise, so all of these recent press reports are nothing more than posturing about how "shocked" gov't officials are for actions that everyone knows occurs all the time.

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Filed Under: china, espionage, hacking, military

12 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 12 Sep 2007 @ 6:22pm

Spy counter spy.

Every government is spying on every other government.

If that were not true then the Tom Clance books would be aful booring.
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hardware firewall, 12 Sep 2007 @ 6:39pm

Firewalls
Use a hardwawired fire and no one will get in I have alot of hits's no one got in yet
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GoblinJuice, 12 Sep 2007 @ 7:10pm

w00t! Cold War 2.0, baby! =D
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FSO, 12 Sep 2007 @ 7:22pm

First hand truth
My company (a government contractor) has had several hundred thousand (yes thousand attempts)to gain entry and ALL of the attempts can be traced back to China to companies wholly owned by the Chinese military. So to any one who says it doesn't habben I just say BullS...
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Sep 2007 @ 7:23pm

Re: Firewalls
You also aren't the military of a major government.
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the overflowster, 12 Sep 2007 @ 7:24pm

India, the US, Oz -- they're all doing it
Yep, here's another good link that claims that the CIA is now tapping into India, which is tapping in to Germany and Japan and so on. http://www.notshort.net/2007/09/your-government-is-hacker.html
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Sep 2007 @ 6:28am

Re: Firewalls
No one's gotten in that you KNOW of. For many hackers it's not a matter of just getting in, it's getting in without leaving a trace. Hardware firewalls have many vulnerabilities that can easily be exploited for those who know what they are.

One of the biggest problems with the reliance that most people place on their security products is that they feel since they're using "x" product they're safe now and don't have to worry.
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Chris Maresca, 13 Sep 2007 @ 8:29am

Part of the problem...
... is lack of high standards in Chinese hosting companies. There are two facets to this:

a. Willingness to host anyone for enough cash, including spammers and professional extortion groups

b. Lack of systems security

The second one is part of the hacking problem, since a lot of compromised machines are in China. The first is a huge problem as there are a fair number of bad apples on 'net that try to get money from folks in unsavory ways.

I would also add that China is not alone, there are a number of other countries which have this problem to varying degrees.

Chris.
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Chris Maresca, 13 Sep 2007 @ 8:38am

Re: First hand truth
No surprise there, anyone who has a server on the 'net will have 'several hundred thousand' attempts. Hell, my personal machine gets at least 500 a day, and that's just the ones I see in my logs. Probably 60% of them come from Chinese IPs, the rest mostly from Europe, with a small amount from Latin America, relatively few from the US.

The fact that attempts are from subsidiaries of the military is a surprise how? If I were in there shoes, I would do the same, which is exactly what the US does. Or did you forget the spyplane incident last year? The only thing this really shows is that they are bad at covering their tracks.

The real worry will be when you no longer see the attacks. That will mean they have found less visible ways of gathering the same information....

Chris.
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Old 70's hacker, 13 Sep 2007 @ 8:56am

Re: First hand truth
"...ALL of the attempts can be traced back to China to companies wholly owned by the Chinese military."

Man that was a funny sentance... How do you KNOW this?
I remember getting into almost all top computer establishments in the 70's and if the people who got "hacked" got a whiff of it, they usually proclaimed the attacker came from more the place I wanted them to, which usually was either next door or 5000+ miles away...
And if you beleive it was easier then, with only a thousand nodes on the "net" and state controlled telcos etc, you are very much mistaken. Now the forest is so big you can hide and run without a trace.
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andy, 13 Sep 2007 @ 10:07am

in russia...
government hacks (or poisons) you!
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TIGER, 17 Sep 2007 @ 1:50am

耸人不听闻！其实各个国家都是这样的，当真刀真枪要死人的战争超出了人� ��精神上的承受能力的时候，暗自就开始了在口舌上的战斗，博取精神上的� �利。

而流言是可以终结生命的，只不过对于世界上庞大的国家机器而言� �没有什么可以损失，发出流言的国家终究面对的是诚信的缺失！而陷入不可自拔的境地。

麻烦翻译则个。
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