Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Government Accused of Hacking Congress
Alotau writes "Chinese hacking is getting some serious Congressional attention. Two House members said Wednesday their Capitol Hill computers, containing information about political dissidents from around the world, have been hacked by sources apparently working out of China. Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf says four of his computers were hacked. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith says two of his computers were compromised in December 2006 and March 2007. The two lawmakers are longtime critics of China's record on human rights."
Most of the rest of us get cheap inferior crap, lead poisoning, manufacturing sectors out-sourced, and jobs greeting people at Wal-Mart. I am not the least surprised by this China is on a bid to become the dominant super power through what ever means necessary, the only thing they have in their way is the United States (there are others above them, but not as far). Therefore by keeping tabs on and gradually infiltrating the US they advance their way to dominant status. I just wish some people other than us left-wing nutjobs would actually start looking at this and thinking about it.
Like arts? Like cheesy little Indie mags? Check out www.artwerkmag.com, and don't laugh at the bad coding please.
Having not read TFA but read the summary, it only says that they were working out of China. That could mean that any person in China with access to a computer and *possibly* access beyond the great firewall of China could have done it. The summary sounds like if a US hacker hacked the Chinese government it would have to be the US government and not some ordinary hacker.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
would be to author software to circumvent chinese censorship, and distribute it widely
shouldn't be too hard to distribute, just hack in
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
But as we see in the business world, even though there are technologies that are 10000X superior to what you are currently using and may even cost less, those in upper management will complain that it isn't familiar and they might have to learn something new. I wouldn't see anything different in this case.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
So what makes China any different. Lobbyist groups have been "hacking" congress for ages.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Because I think its going to be a useful skill given the way the wing is blowing.
Only a few years ago the eclipsing of the US by China was seen as a far off, ad even an unlikely, contingency. Now it is looking almost certain. They've quietly kept their heads down, developing their economy and their military, whilst the US has blown trillions of dollars on a pointless war, fumbled its economy and trashed its international reputation.
What kind of superpower can't do anything in response to such an open violation of its national security? It is the same kind of powerlessness that was demonstrated by the UK when the Russians openly murdered someone in the middle of London and we did nothing of consequence.
We in the west have squandered our soft power and shown our hard power to be just about adequate for securing two barely armed third world shitholes. This fact hasn't been missed by Russia and China.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I have a server the size of a double CD case locked in a dark generator shed on a tiny island miles from anywhere that sits alone 9 months of the year reporting battery bank voltages to me.... Chinese hackers attempt to break into it several times a day.
The fact is, there is a metric shitload of Chinese hackers out there. Just because you think you are something special doesn't mean they are targeting you.
(of course the hacker may not be from China, they are just using a machine in China as the most recent hop.)
The solution is simple:
Don't connect personal computers containing Shit That Matters to the internet.
Invoking teh Yellow Peril is a smokescreen. If they can get in, so can others...
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Exactly! This is why sensitive data should not be stored locally on laptops, and if it absolutely must be on there it should be highly encrypted. Microsoft doesn't ship an OS at it's highest security, but a competent administrator can finish the job (albeit sometimes with 3rd party tools).
Suppose China were found unequivocally guilty by this congressional hearing, what kind of punishment/sanction is our pro-business government (both parties) going to impose? There'll surely be economical retaliation and Walmark are not going to like that.
Just like suppose Windows were found to be running on most of the hacked computer, is our government going to to tough enough to demand replacing all our military computers with something more secure? Not when a multi billion contractor from Redmond has anything to say about it.
This raises another point. Surely our enemies with resource (and computer resource is cheap and abundant) are going to try to hack us. Shouldn't we be more focused on securing our system: something we can do pro-actively. Instead of blaming the attacker, over whom we have to jurisdiction (or unwilling) to punish, shouldn't we punish those people who leave us vulnerable here, at home, when we are paying them shit load of tax money to secure our infrastructure? And if the infrastructure is to blame, should we blame congress?
The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't
Dissent is patriotism. Nationalism is not. No matter how much spin they put on it.
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
In any case, they had physical access to the machine, so unless you're encrypting the HDD, it's game over. Your stock Debian laptop would have been compromised as quickly as the one with Windows XP. Bastille Linux is just the same type of protection that can be had for Windows if you want or need it, and I'm guessing in this case they do want and need it. But it's not Windows' fault, and it's not Microsoft's fault, no matter how much you want that to be the case.
The twitter monologues. Click on my homepage and be amazed.
Does working out of China mean they work FOR the Chinese government? Or is it just speculation?
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
This has been happening since China first got IP space. Their defense department was the origin of their first (very amateurish) hacks, those against pro-Tibet web sites. Thousands have happened since and have been reported, and it's no more likely to end than any other intrusions.
If the US wanted it to stop they'd put up honey pots with credible but artificial data and then wait for it to get used. This is how you catch the intruder and protect the real data at the same time. And the US knows this. This is first semester psyops. Fact is, they're almost certainly doing it, making this announcement utterly meaningless. And it is, unless you stick around for second semester psyops. That's when they teach you how to craft a story that makes such a big splash that something more important but entirely unrelated gets missed.
The present administration rarely hides its efforts along these lines, or Jon Stewart wouldn't have nearly as much material to work with. It's when something is really threatening to them that they work in the grey. Just as a possible for instance, in how many sources can you find this story, and in how many can you find the story of Kucinich's reading of articles of impeachment? And which is the more important story?
When something gets way too much coverage than it deserves, look around and see what's not getting enough. It'll be there because they can't make it go away. All they can do is tie a bell around the media's neck and wait for the sheeple to follow it.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I wouldn't think that cracking the pc of the average Congressman would be all that challenging. A bit of spearphishing and you're in.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Bastile-Linux. Great tool. It doesn't prevent you from booting the laptop with knoppix or something of the like, then mounting the drive and dd'ing it. They should be using multi-tier'd security for any system that leaves the premises. With considerations for different types of attack vectors. Physical and virtual. JMO. Also... If they can fry the electronics in a plane with the flip of a switch why can't they make the laptops self destruct when something cracks or penetrates the case? You could easily kill anything that would of had data on it by frying it if someone tries to remove it. Or better yet... Don't carry a laptop with data on it. Get the data via some secure channel and have it armed with a TTL, so it removes itself from existance. But what do I know, all my important stuff lives on the flash drive in my pocket and its encrypted.
I notice the article doesn't mention if any of the data on these computers was encrypted. It's one thing to hack into a Windows desktop. It's quite another to have to break a 1024-bit AES cipher to actually make use of the data you find. This should be (yet another) wakeup call that any data of any importance should be encrypted with a strong cipher. It's not like it's difficult to do, and it's not like the software is expensive (TrueCrypt, anyone?). I encrypt all my personal data, and if it was compromised, worst case scenario my identity might be stolen. These idiots (sorry, that's Representatives...) are storing personal information about political dissidents and refugees. If THAT data is compromised, worst case scenario people get killed, and entire political movements are quashed by force.
One thing I'd like to point out is, this is much less due to "years of propaganda", as you say, than the fact that the US has not exactly made friends throughout the world recently. It's viewed as an arrogant superpower trying to police the world.
On the flip side, US media is doing its best to foster a national sentiment that is very unfriendly towards China.
But I do agree with the rest of your post.
Sorry, they could have been running a fully locked down setup that even the legitimate END USER has trouble getting into, and it wouldn't make any difference.
If they were able to get the laptop long enough to copy the system, you're screwed either way.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
We have nothing on China. According to the BBC's annual poll of nations opinions of other nations influence, 90% of Chinese think China has a positive influence on the world. Ninety percent. That's not only provocative, but outrageous. That's surely similar to 1940s-era America, hardly like now, where only 56% of Americans believe that America has a positive influence on the world.
China has an unquestionable horrifying nationalism problem. This can be seen in issues such as Tibet and Taiwan. What's troubling isn't that Chinese want Tibet and Taiwan to be part of China, I can view that as acceptable. What isn't acceptable, however, are such obvious propaganda-induced lines of reasoning such as "Tibet has always been a part of China and forever will be a part of China." Not only is that false -- Tibet was its own country until China marched in there 50 years ago and took it, but that's how it works in war; winner takes all. But then the Chinese government proceeded to educate their entire 1+ billion population that, indeed, Tibet had always been a part of China, and that anyone who questioned otherwise was not Chinese and was siding with the Dalai Lama, who isn't even human.
Another Nationalism-brought issue outlined by the BBC poll is its hatred of Japan. There are only two important countries in the world that hate Japan -- China and South Korea. One might argue that it's because of Japan's war-time atrocities that they never properly atoned for. They have apologized many times, however poorly, and Japan is not elegant in international relations. That said, my argument is, East Asia was hugely and negatively affected by the Japanese Empire. China and South Korea aren't the only countries affected with horrendous atrocities. But why then, have all of the other South-East nations forgiven Japan, but China and South Korea haven't? Only 12% of Chinese carry a positive view of Japan's influence on the world -- not opinion of Japan, but opinion of the positiveness of Japan's influence on the world. Whereas in Taiwan, Japan's very popular culturally, even though many elderly people still speak Japanese from being forced to learn it during occupation!
And my last argument -- Anti-Anti-Chinese protests? VIOLENT Anti-Anti-Chinese protests, with prevalent stalking and death threats of anyone that criticized China? C'mon, that's pitiful.
And to any Chinese that might be reading this, my message would be that there's nothing wrong with being proud to be Chinese. There's nothing wrong with wanting the Chinese people to be united and patriotic. But people and government are separate. Just because you're Chinese doesn't mean you have to defend your government for no other reason than that it's my government, just how Americans don't have to defend President Bush just because he's my President. Nationalism is good in small doses for the morale of a country, but in large quantities like currently present in China, war is almost certainly inevitable. Think about the nationalism of 1940s America, 1940s Japan, 1940s Nazi Germany (hah, Godwin's law strikes again!). Unchecked Nationalism only brings horror and foolish decisions, all for the sake of being Chinese, or being American, or being Japanese, or being German.
The military (and certain politicians) have a vested interest in blowing threats out of proportion to get better funding, especially under this administration. The same goes for the intelligence services, who have already shown themselves incompetent at producing real facts.
Hacking happens, sure. Evil Chinese Spies targeting the Pentagon to Take Over The World(TM) is just a neocon wet dream. Those guys are just hedging in case the Evil Iranian Terrorists Taking Over The World(TM) plot doesn't work out.
Jebus...can we leave the OS wars out of it? Just this once?
No, we can't. And we shouldn't.
People in the government are putting life-critical and national-security-critical information on computers driven by a software system that is notorious for a multi-decade history of being riddled with security holes, some of which are architectural and unfixable.
Doing this - and CONTINUING to do this when they should know better - is a major part of the issue under discussion.
In this case it has resulted in the disclosure of the identities of dissidents to the intelligence agencies of foreign governments who wish them eliminated. This will probably result in a number of incarcerations, tortures, and deaths.
In other cases it may even lead to outcomes as serious as the US losing a war, being conquered, or being destroyed.
This is an important issue. Failing to fix it may result the deaths of multiple millions of people and creating a future consisting of a jackboot on humanity's neck for generations to come.
For us to refrain from discussing it because you're sick of "OS wars" would be beyond criminal. It only lacks a declaration of war to qualify as treason.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Whole disk encryption fails if you have physical access to the running machine, as the keys are in memory somewhere, but it's certainly better than nothing.
It's not at all hard to use whole disk encryption with a Windows laptop. The complaint here should be "why wasn't the laptop encrypted", not "why was it running an unfashionable OS".
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
There was an article on Slashdot main page about machines in China being taken over by Russians to conduct campaigns related to the GPcode virus. This "congress hacking" could be the same thing. Just remember people in China are just started to use Internet. When 90% (I estimate) of the Chinese internet population use $3 versions of Windows XP, don't expect they practice common sense on protecting their machine from viruses.
"The New Age. The New Beginning."
"Microsoft recall" - search pulls 711k results.
Yeah, Chinese companies are not meeting standards, and they are probably cutting corners. BIG shock.
As far as openly executing executives? I've heard of one case where that's happened, and - I don't have any sources handy - it was for something egregious, like intentionally shipping a product resulting in hundreds of deaths (I'll stop because admittedly, I don't remember the details. I wouldn't say the guy deserved to die, but that's just me). So what are you suggesting with the "kill themselves" in quotes? That the Chinese government is running some secret program whereby company execs who embarrass the name of the country are killed off?
Someone needs to drink less of the Western media kool-aid.
But well, China is clearly a world threat, given its aggressive tendencies...you know, Red China ramping up their military, how dare any country do such a thing. But we're in no position to point fingers here, because we've been the country going around, occupying other countries, for - as time goes by - reasons which become more and more farcical.
There's a much stronger argument that the US is the biggest threat to the world, but thankfully, this could change with a new administration. (+1 for democracy).
But you know what, China's economic and military growth IS a threat to the US's status as a superpower, something which we would very much like to hold on to, so you bet the US government and our "free, independent" media wants us all to think of China as a dangerous, evil "dragon" waiting to rise and destroy us all. That's propaganda.
mmmm, USA bugs UN Phone system, and complain about hacking attempts from China, Do you people really think that the USA is not doing this???
Garbage In - Garbage Out anyone?
What do you consider funny about the incarceration, torture and murder of dissidents in China? It is sickening that a government that so often stonewalls it's own citizens is using software that leakes the same information to it's worst enemies. It's sad incompetence which does real harm to people.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
Well ... duh, did the Chinese government try it's hand at some cyberspying? Perhaps, perhaps not. Well, I reckon it's their *job* to try and break into systems (if foolishly left unsecured) from friendly old Uncle Sam, to try and glean "sensitive" information.
Does anyone really doubt that some arm of the US government is doing exactly the same thing as we "speak" - trying to break into critical systems of "rivals" and "allies"?
Some excellent points.
./ readers are angrily thinking of ripostes; "China/Japan has always treated Japan/China badly!"
My wife is Japanese. Her mother has visited China several times and is learning Mandarin. But two things I know better than to do is attempt to discuss whaling, or Japan's actions in China during the war.
The Chinese population may well be indoctrinated but they're not the only ones. Try and find a Japanese school book which examines - honestly - Japan's history as it pertains to WW2. Good luck with that.
Japanese people do not learn about such subjects and they are perfectly happy and content to remain blissfully ignorant of such things. Out of sight, out of mind.
My Chinese friends believe that China is as good as it gets, but they are no worse than my American friends in that regard: Just be a foreigner and criticise the US to see even the most leftie-liberal Yank's eyes flash with anger.
Asian cultures seem to have much longer collective memories than most others. Japan and China will use truly ancient historical events as examples of why we should hate their enemies too.
I love my Asian family and friends with a passion. They are intellectual and sophisticated in ways too many westerners aren't. I wouldn't be without them. But, yeah, like the rest of us, they have their faults and resorting to rampant Xenophobia at unfortunate moments (such as anytime) is one of them. An unwillingness to accept that they could ever be wrong about any of the perceived threats and offences of the other is another dismaying issue.
Even now, Chinese and Japanese
I don't see attitudes changing any time soon.
Even I with my limited knowledge about how one can hide one's tracks on the internet, even I know that it is exceedingly easy. I'm sure if the Chinese government has a number of cyber-operatives hacking into American servers, they will be a bit more knowledgeable about these things than I am. In fact, wouldn't the most reasonable approach be to not do it from somewhere in China? Or even better, not be so clumsy that you leave dirty fingerprints all over a second-rate politician's Windows machine.
A much more likely scenario, if you ask me, is that this is either a simple, barefaced lie, or it is somebody who has spoofed his address to somewhere in China, which is not at all hard: Just hack into a machine in China, then go from there.