Taiwan Under Cyber Attack from China

An anonymous reader writes: "O'Reilly Developer News is reporting this morning that Taipei is under cyber attack by a Chinese 'army of hackers'. The Taipei government is saying that the attacks are trojan-horses against windows machines that are being staged to break in to government databases."

Comments

Before you forecast the Chinese invasion...

[Mr. Darl McBride]

Before everybody starts up with Chinese government conspiracy theories, keep in mind that the Chinese themselves absolutely hate Taiwan. Government propaganda is issued against Taiwan, pretty much from birth. This has long been done to ensure that the Chinese army is ready and the citizenry are in support for any military action the government deems necessary. This has worked for many a decade, since the two geographic locations are disparate; a lifetime away for most of the citizenry.

It's only with the advent of the Internet that the two are suddenly in contact in meaningful ways. In a strange twist, and in many cases the Chinese government is in a position where they have to defend Taiwan against these kinds of attacks from their own citizens!

It's a strange, strange world. And as we grow more connected, it's getting more so every day. So buy SCOX stock.

They have windows source code?

[Anonymous CowWord]

It's interesting that this is happening now, after china has acquired windows' source code. Could they have found newer vulnarabilities that no one knows about yet?

Pretty Interesting...

[paranoidsim]

Especially the last part of the article:

"If there's any lesson from this experience, it is not to use software developed in China or hire Chinese computer programmers, because you're running the risk of having the software you use implanted with the Trojan-horse program"

on the heels of this report, regarding China's intentions of developing their own OS:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/31/1 52525 2

Told You So

[the eric conspiracy]

Because of the vast popularity and many weaknesses of the Windows operating system, most of the damage is done to Windows users, Tsai said.

Department of Hoeland Security, take note.

Re:Regardless of the implications...

[sammaffei]

2) This is better for people than having any country invade or bomb another. This type of invasion may be a precursor to that one - but if, in the future, a country can be brought to its knees with minimal loss of life by just wrecking its computer infrastructure, then that is a good development of history.

Yeah, critical computer equipment in nuclear power plants, training track switching computers and etc. isn't gonna kill anyone...

Re:Regardless of the implications...

[michaelggreer]

1) It would be cool in a movie, but in real life these things are true weapons. You can bring down electrical systems, stall trains, release sewage into the water supply. Real people can die real deaths because of these.

2) I think the possibility of low-level warfare is more dangerous than bombs. The cold war shows this: if you only have maximum response, then you will hesitate to use it. If you have lots of low-level responses (car bombs, plane hijackings, etc ) than it is easier to assault your enemy short of war. This is a totalitarian regime attacking their enemy without anybody raising their DEFCON levels. That is scary.

They're Missing the Point.

[BlackBolt]

"If there's any lesson from this experience, it is not to use software developed in China or hire Chinese computer programmers, because you're running the risk of having the software you use implanted with the Trojan-horse program," he said.

That's not the point. The point is not to use closed-source software anymore. If their software was supplied with source code, they could have scanned it thoroughly for trojans before implementing it.

Another Reason Not to Offshore High-Tech Work

[SilentMajority]

Correct me if I'm wrong but we currently don't have any restrictions on critical/pervasive products such as anti-virus or anti-trojan software being developed offshore, right?

Furthermore, I heard recently on CNN that the only restriction on defense weapons is that 50% be developed by US companies. Only 50%!!!

IMHO, one of the primary reasons USA is so strong in defense is because all the brains from overseas came to our country to profit from their work and flee from religious persecution. Now we're shipping opportunities overseas and the judge in Alabama is giving people the impression that Christianity is favored over all other religions here. Smooth move (imagine the next Einstein staying overseas and deveoping the next great weapon for some other country instead of us).

What will happen to our national security when we offshore 90%+ of all of our high-tech jobs and what will happen to the national security in countries (like India & China) where most of the high-tech jobs will be based?

And workers of US companies overseas don't have to pay taxes on the first $75,000 so think of all the lost taxes (billions in income taxes alone) that our government loses--not to mention that those workers if based in the US would have spent their earnings here.

Does anyone in Washington give a damn about our future or is it all about returning favors to those who contribute to campaigns while sacrificing our government budgets and national security?

Isn't it retarded to offshore development of critical products like anti-virus software to other countries? If this story about China attacking Taiwan (which I thought was part of China) is true, then we should stop all security-related software from being offshored--or simply requiring the use of only those developed 100% by companies AND individuals with security clearances.

Ummmm....

[Iowaguy]

You can't really take a pee in China without government sanction. If you think that rebellious feeling Chinese can just spontaneously gather and cary out a non-approved actiivty, then I have a nice prison cell filled with falun gong practicers to sell you. Get real.