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China Says It Lacks Skills To Hack US Systems
ScentCone writes "A spokesman for China's foreign ministry says that — China being the 'developing nation' that it is — he doubts that his country has the sophistication to hack foreign systems. This in response to statements by two congressmen regarding apparent probing by China-based crackers into congressional systems for information about communication between US officials and activists in China."
How would we, chinese people with leetle leetle penises have the courage to do something like that against big americans with big penises?
They threaten to hack the universe and boast about hitting powerplants and such.. then a month or two later they get accused of hacking an important computer system and they suddenly don't have the sophistication to do so?
Lacks the skills to lie convincingly to anybody it doesn't have the power of life or death over, more like.
So who did it then, elves?
...that this is probably the most unique non-denial denial that would make our own politicians proud.
China has the money and skills to build the Great Firewall. They are clearly capable.
The guy that delivers my chinese food seems to be pretty computer savvy, he farms WoW gold on his time off :)
:P
Okay.. flame away
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
This kind of reminds me of the South Park episode.
'We cannot achieve so much with such small penis, but you American, wow, penis so big, so big penis!'
Get off it already, they have as much technical expertise as Japan, India, Russia, or the USA. This is a fairly lame attempt at placating the senate.
...they generally outsource all their hacking in exchange for WoW gold.
Solly.
They've only got, like, a billion people, and they're all needed to work the rice patties. They can't spare anyone to learn teh hax0rz.
Man, this is almost better than the Chewbacca defense. This is the ego-stroking social engineering attack at its finest. Oh, American penis so big...
Welcome our "we're too primitive to hack" hacker overlords.
Oh yes. One more thing.
*COUGH*BULLSHIT*COUGH*BULLSHIT*COUGH*
Now where were we?
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
For talented crackers, it would be relatively easy to cover their tracks by using several compromised machines as proxies for their attack.
China has large internet user base and the average Jin would likely secure their home machine as well as average Joe across the ocean.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
...you do have the Great Firewall thing going for you...which is nice.
That China hacked the systems of two congressmen they are unlikely to have any interest in, or that someone else, knowing everyone would leap to blame China, hacked Chinese computers and used them to do the attack?
Seems to me they could use the access to try and steal something they could sell.
If it was an attack, I mean, has there been any evidence released? Or is this just finger pointing in the absence of proof?
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
Software cracking skills are much different from, say, ICBM technology. They can be developed by an individual through reading readily accessible texts and practice. The argument that China as a whole does not have the technical sophistication to crack into U.S. systems due to it being a "developing nation" is disingenuous.
Sure they lack the skill, and in related news "Pigs Can Fly".
You dont need to have special "skills" to become a script kiddie, which is enough to get into vulnerable systems.
... using the entire population of China.
UNSTOPPABLE
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
being so inept and young as a country... one of the oldest on earth... They are too stupid to build nuclear subs too - boo whooo.
Next they'll tell us they don't have the know-how to put up satellites or to launch men into orbit...
A country that manufactures most of the world's - well, everything - doesn't have the sophistication to hack a couple of lousy Windows boxen? Ummmmmmmmm....
It comes to me as strange to me that such a security blunder is made public.
He called it his human rights computer to give it that extra amateuristic touch.
...you'd think their politicians would have a bit more experience at lying.
then how did one of their submarines pop up in the middle of one of our Navy carrier groups undetected?
Train at Universities around the World.
Manufacture a good chunk of our communications and electronic goods.
Build nuclear submarines...
They can hack as well as anyone.
Did anyone else read "Chinese crackers" as white people working for the Chinese?
It's the NSA's job to protect us from this kind of crap right? "The NSA is responsible for protecting U.S. government communications and information systems from similar agencies elsewhere." Throw them some more billions of CASH!!!
China can SAY whatever it wants. The fact of the matter is that computer hardware is not outside their fiscal reach, and information wants to be free.
Headline on slashdot reads : China Says It Lacks Skills To Hack US Systems
I read it as : China doesnt have da 1337 skills.
Unless they are talking about driving skills, then its total bull. 1 Billion people, im pretty sure there has to be atleast 1-2 tech savvie people working for the goverment.
is apparently a grossly inaccurate stereotype.
Maybe there are bootleg Cisco routers in the Capitol office building.
Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
Weesa nots smart enough for yousa craaazy Americans with your knock-off Cisco boxes...weesa kinda sold you.
If they can get the US to let him go, Tariq Aziz, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Aziz would make the perfect spokesperson for the Chinese denial of attacks.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Remember, they readily come here to get educated at our grad schools as well. Not only could they have learned there, they could have learned HERE as well.
... your western computer systems frighten and confuse me.
You have to admit, that was one hell of a zing.
If by "developing nation" they mean the nation developing (or at least producing) all of the hardware, with the access to put whatever back doors they want into firmware in nigh untraceable ways, then perhaps he at least has that part right.
I'm not buying it, and not just 'cause of Lou Dobbs.
If they do not have the skill to crack into those laptops, then we should stop sending all this hi-tech software development work over to them
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I can't wait to see the rest of China's dirty laundry that will be exposed as the Olymics start
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso
I'm far too simple-minded to post a satirical comment on Slashdot.
Lets look at the situation now. They are buying commodities like they are going out of style. They are buying oil in massive amounts (two bidders on Saudi oil means oil goes from 55 per barrel to 140 per barrel). They are building opteron processors for AMD at plants onshore, and they designed their own dragon chip, roughly equivaent to a '486 but now enanced and manufactured in millions of pieces. Further, they have rockets that can now go to space (although the Americans are yelping that some of the technology may have leaked from them, they were well on track to come up with it on their own). There are 1.1 billion of them, but nowhere is there any who can hack a web site..... (ok, yeah thats what they said, but its just soo much BS)...
Nothing to see here, western capitalist lackeys. Move along.
Have gnu, will travel.
Its not like they have to train a whole division of PLA troops to execute a hacker attack. There are enough people in China who work for development shops for Western companies to more than provide the expertise necessary. Not to mention that its not like we have never let a Chinese national into a Computer Science program in a major university.
I think that this announcement was some sort of ironic joke, sort of like an Arab oil sheik calling himself a camel jockey during a conversation using his satellite phone located on his 200ft yacht. Who ever said the Chinese have no sense of humor?
What is more likely:
1. China is conducting military hacking activities against allies in such a way that will attract negative attention.
2. China has a lot of easy-to-hack computers that more sophisticated non-Chinese hackers are using as relays for their own hacking.
Perhaps it is both, but I would bet that there is a whole lot of #2 going on.
But Zero Hour has taught me that they stick a bunch of these hackers in an internet center, stealing 5 dollars at a time from our bank accounts. As they get more skillful at hacking, they are able to steal... 6 dollars at time! Then 7!
Sounds pretty sophisticated to me. Sophisticated enough to satellite hack our command center- I mean government.
I hurt myself laughing so hard!!!
No hour on a horse is ever wasted. Winston Churchill
I almost died! I almost choked on my lunch reading this summary. I sit down...take a bite, open slashdot, and nearly choke! Damn you editors!
I propose that stories with claims THAT ridiculous this should have title and summary hidden with a warning so that readers eating or drinking can be prepared! I mean really...think how many geeks you might endager with a headline of "Openly Gay Republican Elected to Office"
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Please hack this war criminal.
Thank you for helping to spread democracy and freedom around the world.
Communistically Yours,
Kilgore Trout
Reports show outsourcing to Chinese programmers is on the outs, since they just don't have the POWER!
remember this...? http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1098371,00.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1098961-1,00.html
"then how did one of their submarines pop up in the middle of one of our Navy carrier groups undetected?"
It didn't, that's what the Navy said to convince people like you to give them more money.
And you fell for it.
I don't know who perpetrated the hacks in question, but saying that the most populous country in the world, a country that was chosen to host the 39th Olympic games, a country that maintains the largest known firewall and surveillance systems on the planet, Can't scrounge up a few people capable of it isn't just laughable. It's vaguely insulting.
I guess I was imagining all those attacks on port 22 (ssh) from China in my server logs.
[Insert pithy quote here]
They shouldn't have blocked all those freedom loving hacking sites with their Great Chinese Firewall.
And unlike ICBM technology, you can't buy cracking skills from Russians.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
China might have smarter intruders if they'd just stop making so much stuff with lead paint.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
best hacking is done through social networking. What are they gunna do? Pretend to be the chinese delivery people asking for an admin password or something?
Besides, everyone knows the best hackers are in Jails. US Jails.
Surely a country as limited as China who is more than capable of building the single largest most ambitious damn ever conceived by man lacks the know how to probe foreign governments via a computer.
Hell even the AOL'ers of old knew how to h4x0r a Gibson, or at least probe it.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
If ten year old script kiddies can hack a Windows system, I'm sure the Chinese will have no problems.
True, instead they are given away on the internet.
The Chinese have found a way to make chicken taste like an orange! Now you're telling me they can't hack into a US computer? Come on!
We don't live in Shouldland.
President Hirohito: There is nothing to worry about. We at Japan Toy Compnay are in awe of your large penis.
Mr. Garrison: What?
President Hirohito: You see, Japanese penis so small [holds his hands about an inch apart]
Mr. Ose: [set his index finger an inch from his thumb] So-eh small.
President Hirohito: You Americans have such humungous burbous penis.
Mr. Garrison: Well, uh-I guess that's true.
Mr. Ose: Oh, suh-n nice-a big penis American.
President Hirohito: What can we possubruh do with such small penis? We cannot take over your city, filled witha men awith such mastodonic penis.
Jimbo: Huwell, uh he's got a point there.
Randy: Well, I guess that settles that.
Fr. Maxi: We're sorry we took your time, gentlemen. e. Well, I guess that settles that. We're sorry we took your time, gentlemen.
Lack the sophistication? Are you kidding me? Some of the best hackers turn out to be 14 year old kids futzing around in their parent's basement. Is this guy seriously trying to claim China lacks the "sophistication" of a 14 year old ADD brat?
China's official denial is ... laughable.
I met a lot of chinese in grad school (hint: when
attending a conference, make sure at least one US
citizen attends with any group of chinese... because
your rental car agency will want to see a credit card).
The expertise might be thin on the ground in China,
but it isn't absent.
More to the point, if that expertise IS thin on the ground,
the likelihood of a chance encounter with a hacker is small.
The observed events must therefore have been OTHER than
chance, perhaps arranged by some Chinese nationwide
agency...
Chinese insistence on information control (declaring all sorts
of information 'state secret') implies a mindset that all US
acquisition of information is 'stealing state secrets', and
it's very likely that cracking open visitors' computers is
expected behavior for any Chinese who welcomes an
American congressman. Sad, but not unexpected.
In this and other matters of diplomacy, China is uncivilized.
Developing Nations! Developing Nations! Developing Nations! Developing Nations!
.01% of their population was capable of computer programming, it's a vastly huge number of DevelopersDevelopersDevelopersDevelopers -- more than enough to hack through the US Gov's self-assessed "C-" grade IT security.
China's only been "developing" itself for the last 5000 or so years. They have nukes and rockets.
Their population is beyond huge. Even if
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
if I can hack into stuff, they can too.
Racks the skills to rie convincingry to anybody it doesn't have the power of rife or death over, more rike.
... says that he doubts that his country has the sophistication in culinary skills necessary to cook a gourmet meal.
If pigs could fly, they would be flying like a brilliant bi-plane.
Reminds me of an old joke:
Q: How many Chinese does it take to screw in a light bulb?
.
.
.
A: Many! Because Confucious say, "Many hands make light work!"
Isn't China a buyer of Microsoft Shared Source technology? Hard to imagine they DON'T know what's going on under the hood.
Our penis so small, American penis so big. I mean, wow, such big American penis. Chinese cannot hack America with such small penis.
:p)
(yes, I know that they were Japanese on South Park
If the chinese lacked suck technical skill then how the hell did they down Illidan with half their raid still in Tier 3???????
Sorry, the Developing nation excuse is lame. Developing nations dont produce and design electronics devices, design and build ICBMs, submarines, warships, launch GPS satellites, etc.
And using thier logic, the USA is also a developing nation. Maybe we are a little more developed, but we still have a way to go and are making progress.
Come on, you know you want to. ;)
"Gee, Mrs. Cleaver, I was just telling Wallace here how we could never figure out how to break your really great security features, weren't we? Golly, I'd better be getting home to help mom and dad clean up that really bad flood. That's a lovely dress, Mrs. Cleaver."
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
They hack better than they lie...or maybe they aren't aware that Americans don't have only one source for news...
Wasn't Sun Tzu Chinese?
Anyway, why bother to hack? They're probably dropping off a Chow Mein with Sweet and Sour Pork at the Pentagon as I type this...
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
this phenomenon the stone knives and bearskins defense.
("we couldn't POSSIBLY do this kind of advanced stuff, yadda yadda...")
or rather, I attach that well-known ST phrase to this kind of laughable defense.
imagine, the country that makes 95% of all the electronics parts in the world saying 'we are too dumb to do techie stuff'.
what a farse.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Easy way to infiltrate their intelligence network: Just stand outside the Chinese government buildings selling pirated copies of Windows with rootkits.
Only 16yr olds in russia with leet bot nets have those kinds of skills.
Besides, the chinese are too busy producing iPod clones to bother with such things. After all, what are they going to find out? "Oh, look, apparently we killed Kennedy - and we're martians who landed in the US desert. Interesting, we can now rule the world".
Maybe its a conspiracy theory in the making, maybe apple hacking into the US and made it look like china. Next, a rumor will start about oil fields in Tibet and suddenly the distinct lack of democracy will be apparent.. OMG... i've said too much!
...they have the skills.
The guy who said this knows nothing about computers nor how trivial most of these "hacker" skills are to develop. Either that or he's just a liar. Given that this is China we are talking about neither would surprise me.
While the "Great Firewall" is expansive within China's borders, it isn't all that technically impressive. There are internet gateways leading in and out of the country - you already have to have hardware managing that as those pipes lead downwards to major infrastructure backbones, government networks, individual ISP's, etc. Not particularly difficult a step to add filtering/blocking/poisoning to internet requests from the subsidiary networks (not to suggest that it isn't a lot of man hours/hardware involved, but it isn't exactly rocket science - just extensions off of established filtering techniques).
Most of the filtering isn't even being handled by the "Great Firewall" but is instead handled by individual ISP's instituting their own filtering methods and complying with government issued blocklists, as well as citizen self censorship. While I don't mean to suggest that China doesn't have the programming talent to attack other nations networks (especially our American soft and squishy ones), but the "Great Firewall" is hardly a golden example of technological achievement.
(Wikipedia has a fairly good outline of China's known practices, those interested might want to take a look at it before doing some more in-depth research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China)
Hmmm, that probably applies to both
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
so, wouldn't borrowing several computers from them and attack from US located systems be much easier? Is it too foolish to initiate an attack from a Chinese computer if the Chinese government really wanna hack?
Cyber hacking is actually nontracable.
I thought /. has an above average user base. Then I was surprised to see how rational thinking can go down to toilet when it comes to Chinese/Russian/Iranian bashing.
No doubt there are Chinese capable to hack systems. But individual actions does not mean Chinese government is starting a cyberwar. Otherwise, US would be attacking everyone worldwide with spams everyday now.
As China continues to lead the world in technologically sophisticated counterfeit products, their spokesperson declares, "We are definitely a 3rd world developing nation. Even now we are just learning what a kee-bored is."
.CN IP addresses at least twice. I see portscans and brute-force SSH bots coming out of China all the time.
My company has been hacked by
Maybe THAT's where Elbonia is.
Mir tut es leid, Menschen daß Einfältigfehlersuchenbaumfolgendenaffen sind.
My company is expanding into China in 2009-2010. Over 100 locations with Windows boxes acting as POS terminals (Point Of Sale and Piece Of Shit both apply here, unfortunately), connecting back to our network infrastructure in the U.S.
I'm a Network Systems Analyst, but not in a Information Security role. Still, I felt it prudent to ask recently; "so, how are we hardening the systems going into China?" only to be met with the deer in the headlights look. I pointed out the inception of this story and then went on to describe how people could buy in iPhone 1.0 in China last year...30-60 days before last June's U.S. launch. And the fact that virtually ANY software you wanted was available, for pennies, in China. Hacked, cracked, and pre-loaded with malware galore in many cases, to be sure, but available nonetheless.
I didn't get the sense my comments got anyone in power even a little concerned. Luckily, I can retire in Fall 2009. I'll get to read about this upcoming disaster in the easy chair with a cup of joe. I may even think it funny since I won't have to do any mitigation of the virtually guaranteed compromise(s) that will occur.
Underestimating the potential threats in this part of the world is painfully stupid. Which explains the idiot who left an unsecured laptop unattended in a foreign country that isn't exactly an ally, economic or otherwise. There are several firms in that part of the world that offer services to Fortune firms doing business in Asia BECAUSE of the increased risks.
Disingenious? Naw...this is an outright lie, plain and simple.
I am my own gestalt.
We Chinese have very, very little penis. Tiiiny penis. You Americans have so enoooormous penis! American penis is so much overwhelmingly gigantic penis!
gift Horse, you deserve it because you are so much more sophisticated than us...
//Nothing to see here, please move along.
The art of war, Sun Tzu (6th. cent. B.C.), I.18 and 1.19
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm going to trademark NSFL. "Not Safe For Lunch". This could serve multiple purposes, from hilarity induced choking to depravity induced nausea.
I can't buy China's official story on this one.
Damn you, falling U.S. dollar!
I proposed to my company that we ban all Chinese IPs. Why put our business at risk from hackers? We don't have any customers or even potential customers from China, anyway. Between cheaply made gadgets and excessive hacking, I've about had it with China.
They've learned a valuable lesson from US offshore/H1B biz lobbyists: Make up stuff about how your citizens are "dumb" to justify something.
Table-ized A.I.
An autistic sixteen year old could hack the wests security and I know I've seen him do it. He would be dangerous if he wasn't so totally absorbed in Manga comic and his hamster .. :)
davecb5620@gmail.com
While they may lack computer hacking skills, their nunchuck skills are awesome!
And I thought the US government were bad liars.
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
China saying they don't have the skill to hack US resources is like when reps for the advertising industry claim that they don't have the wherewithal to create specific, targeted subliminal advertising. Who do they think is going to buy this stuff?
That's why like every company in north america, they outsourced their hacking to india.
If a developing nation is able to put a man in orbit, I wonder where that ranks Canada in the world...
Goodbye Slashdot. You've changed.
"Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." Said over 2500 years ago. That's before Jesus Christ superstar, btw.
You should all read Sun Tzu and have a bash at playing "Go" as well.
Deleted
have lasers being used against American sats, have hit a weather sat, are building 1-2 nuclear power attack subs/year, 1-3 nuclear powered SBSN, and they do not have the sophistication to attack computers?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
So small.
"The Pentagon acknowledged last month at a closed House Intelligence committee meeting that its vast computer network is scanned or attacked by outsiders more than 300 million times each day"
.. :)
How about designing a VPN network that runs on embedded hardware that provides end-to-end encryption and identity management. That way none of these hacks would even work as they wouldn't be able to get on the network.
To all the certified sandwich makers reading this: For each excuse that follows as to how this isn't feasible, just shorten it to - I'm too stupid to figure it out
davecb5620@gmail.com
I like Chinese. I like Chinese. There's nine hundred million of them in the world today. You'd better learn to like them; that's what I say.
India launches spacecraft too. Are you claiming that India is not a developing nation?
Just because the packets are coming from China doesnt mean they did it. That would have been an excellent cover up if someone was to compromise specific Chinese systems, and then route their attacks to the US sourced from China.
Also, if China did this... why the hell would they admit to it? That is laughable.
"lacking skills" that is also laughable. Every high school in the world has one or two (maybe a lot more even) capable "hackers" (I hate that name)in it.
I claim we are ALL developing. Some are just more "developed" than others.
Its like me saying my family isnt smart enough to do something. Maybe 95% of my extended family is a bunch of hilljacks that can barely form coherent sentences, but there is a small % that are doctors, lawyers, computer geeks, etc.
So by China's logic, because the masses are ignorant rural farmers there is no way they could have done it. Bull. They are conveniently "forgetting" about the very small part of their population that can (and do) things like this in their sleep.
So what are they just practicing on my Pix?
Get up!
Disregard my previous comment about America getting pwnt by china. They suck cocks.
Or do we have some Congressman and their employees who like to look at Hot Asian Porn and simply picked up some malware?
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
If this is true, (unlikely) they should outsource their hacking jobs to Russia, who could outsource them to India. Failing that, they could do what every other intel agency in the world does, honeytrap and blackmail someone with access.
It only has a measly 1.5 liter diesel. Your radar must be wrong. My econobox can't go any faster than 55 mph.
You don't understand: I am not locked up in here with you, you are locked up in here with ME!
If the Chinese are so great then how come after 5000yrs+ they still don't control the world? I mean they can barely even feed their own people. The "cultural revolution" was a sham and a farce and Mao deserved what Mussolini got.
And if China is anybodies idea of a social/cultural "success" I'd hate to see their idea of a failure...
tag should read "shanghaied"
there was an Atlantic article a few months ago that exposed how the Chinese military is offering hacking contests. there are kids living on this skill with quiet CPC consent. it's a pretty smart distributed system to foster the raw talent. and an easy war, so far.
(didn't find atlantic article in their search engine. perhaps other readers could help.)
Murderer says, "There's no way I could do that!"
Kid Caught With Hand in Candy Jar says, "It wasn't me!"
Philandering Neighbor Caught With Friend's Wife says, "This isn't what it looks like."
They are technologically advanced enough for a modern manned space program and to plan lunar exploration. Somehow I think adapting the known works of others for cyber attacks is easily within their grasp given a governments worth of resources. Especially since they send students to the US and to England and elsewhere for technological training. And they make a huge portion of the systems they are allegedly attacking! AND!!! They can crank out a clone of an Apple consumer device between the announcement by Apple and when Apple can actually ship the device. The argument they present rings very very hollow.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
Maybe their machines are full of porns and they can just preemptively deny their responsibility of download porns by claiming it is uploaded in there by the Chinese government.
Bullshit. They've had the skills for years. They've had the skills to do so stealthily for fewer years, but still years. They're just not so good as to not to be able to go undetected very often for very long. We're better at that.
And it's still a bullshit story. It's not even newsworthy, it happens so often (from both sides). It only gets dragged out and waved around when there's something else going on they want to detract attention from. China isn't responding in order to deny. They're participating in perpetuating a ruse for The US's benefit that will cost them nothing at home because it won't make the news there. That suggests the story being passed by may involve both, though I still lean towards this serving to deflect people from the impeachment articles against Bush. My money says that when that story dies down in the lesser media, the Chinese hacking stories will disappear from the larger media without any resolution at all or very little impression or memory in most peoples minds.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
After 5 years of biased coverage over China, you have no real ability to question the media. (And definitely, no ability to read Chinese; otherwise, you can read these 1,873,610+ comments related to the stock tumbling of the last two days, even though government shouldn't really be blamed for it at all.)
firing up script-kiddie tools and breaking into an un-patched server? Why, you'd need to land on the Moon before you could do that.
Then how might he explain the barrage of hack attempts from China IP addresses that begin promptly every Friday afternoon just after 5:00 pm in the time zone where my servers are located? Those goobers know EXACTLY when we geeks go home for the weekend and aren't keeping _as_ keen an eye on our systems.
to ignore the incredible negative of your "positive". That's all the GP did: no "mccarthism" here.
China being the 'developing nation' that it is -- he doubts that his country has the sophistication to hack foreign systems
-- but their sarcasm is the most advanced in Asia.
Fuck them. They are our largest trading partners after the EU and Canada. The poison our pets and put lead paint in our children's toys. Now they are spying on us and flippng us the bird as if they were the ones insulted.
Funny, since China wrote all of US's systems.
I too lack the ability to hack anything...please quit questioning me authorities...nothing to see here move along. ;) Dude, if I had known I could just tell them this mess would have been solved years ago. ;)
You, my lady, are bringing in some very Anglican and provincial ideas. Why, didn't you read yesterday's New York Times: it appears that we need to update our sense of freedom of speech to be more in line with the rest of the world.
damaged by dogma
A direct click-through worked for me when I tried it from the "Preview" page for my comment, but I guess my browser must have just been pulling the file out of cache rather than hitting up the server again.
Also, I notice that between the two of us we've currently received three "+1, Informative" moderations for helping people hear penis jokes in exaggerated accents. Thanks for helping me do my part in making the internet such an amazing informational resource.
Sounds just like the arguments made by the great SNL skit CaveMan Lawyer. How could one so backwards ever hope to understand your complex laws when it's a mystery how a car moves?
The Chinese have yet to invent anything remotely resembling a decent breakfast. (Thin rice gruel does not count)
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Or something like that. No such post? Sorry, I'm no good at l44t talk (or something). See my handle.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
China has a lot of people. Most of them are poor and undereducated. But the Party has been cherry picking the country's best and brightest for 40 years now, sending them to the best schools and universities in China, and then to the best foreign universities. Those people are as competent as engineers and scientists as any from the rest of the world.
Unfortunately given the system and ideology they're raised in, they largely possess an aggrieved sense of innate superiority to everyone else. In their eyes, Western countries, Japan, South Korea, and a handful of others have gotten where they are by cheating, essentially. Likewise China has "fallen behind" ("luohouzhuyi"--"fallen-behind-ism") because Western countries, Japan, and others have been engaged in a conspiracy to keep them down.
They're wrong, of course, just as are those who buy the line that Chinese are just a developing country incapable of such technological feats. But it behooves the rest of the world to keep a close eye on China's actions, given the nasty reasons that drive them and the chilling implications of their national sense of victimhood.
The real trick is to welcome China's arrival as a modern power, while curbing their deep desire to get revenge for past wrongs, real or imagined.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Damn it, your Jedi mind tricks will not work on me, even if you are right!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
The real question is...who's lying? Is it the US or China?? Both have reasons....
The truly 'leet hide their 'leet-ness behind a bamboo curtain to misdirect the non-'leet. Truly 'leet masquerade as neophytes. So that from this secreted stance they might strike a more devastating blow.
... but on the same token it is unfair to lay blame. Because there are plenty of 3v1l l33t out there.
Or in 'leet speak:
d4 1337 b3 h1d3z d4 h@x0rzn' an b3 sh@d1n' d4 n00bz f0 wh00pin' y0 @zz! th@n d4 1337 s3z: Ah n0 n00b! 0u+ w1d d4 p0wn@g3!
In summary it is my belief that while China may claim to lack the m@d sk1llz to h@x0rz USian b0x3n they probably do have d4 1337 sk1llz
All joking aside... We still live in a world where a small team of highly skilled computer programmers and networking experts acting on their own can wreak havoc. It is possible that not even higher ups in the Chinese government realize that they have this capability... or can hire it...
After all, seriously, what does it take to do this? Millions of dollars? A few skilled people? Finding a few skilled people willing to sell their skills to the highest bidder? An Internet connection? You're telling me China can't rally that? Of course they can...
[signature]
They don't know what they know.
Why every news story on slashdot about China is about hackers (or its rebuttal) these days? I think some people just need an enemy so they can keep their jobs. Since China isn't provoking wars, and they do not dare either, let's fight some imaginary cyberwars!
I'd consider the chinese extremely dishonest.
The average ebay listing that comes out of mainland china is:
a) for a counterfeit item
b) low buy it now, only to get an insane shipping price that is excessive, even by EMS standards.
Now one would say you would have to be stupid to buy anything from mainland china, but guess where all manufacturing is outsourced to? The kids and pets really paid for it last year.
So no, I don't buy this chinese don't hack. I'll give you server logs of millions attempted dictionary attacks against servers. If someone gets hacked, it's either because their system was was just short of being real secure, or the company who owned the servers outsourced something to China and it's an inside job.
There are plenty of tales of chinese espionage, so I think we are really underestimating the problem.
http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/ink/india/findiachina1962.htm
Idiot! You think a country cannot be a developing nation because it simply has a larger population than other countries? Even though most people in this country still live in very poor condition?!
Obviously they're lying, since any 17-year-old nerd with a modem can hack into US government systems. Maybe "Global Thermonuclear War" just doesn't translate into mandarin.
But still, I believe the Chinese government isn't hacking into US computer systems. After all, what would they want with US intelligence when we can even get a simple thing like the presence of WMD's in Iraq right to avoid a 1/2 Trillion dollar (and climing) war! It's just not worth the effort.
Now I'm not tryingg to call anyone by names, but the country has a BILLION people! So the depth of talent and skills has to be phenomenal. There surely must be hundreds of people who have the skills to hack USAs computers.
Out of poverty often comes greatness (I view it as an excuse not to be distracted by crap like MTV and the NBA, and thereby spend more time of productive achievements). Look at India - it produced many of the great mathematical geniuses of our time - Ramanujan, etc.
..........FULL STOP.
time to fuck up the liberal left. Fuck the jew. heil hitler!
I think it's time they got some security standards for all government computers so hackers, wherever they may be, will have to work a lot harder. Not to mention, there should be a firewall with a white-list, where every person doing government business must register for access... a VPN setup can work well for this kind of thing.
Mush! Mush!
-- thinkyhead software and media
...maybe these congressmen are lying through their teeth, and when the FBI comes forward they won't exactly back up the accounts. Wouldn't surprise me at all.
-- thinkyhead software and media
but enjoy.
If the people of Communist China lack the skills to hack computers, then why is it that companies want to build factories there? Further more, why is the companies in the U.S. want to bring these "highly skilled" people into this country under the H1-B visa program?
Me thinks China is taking lessons on how to speak B.S. from their North Korea neighbors.
"They" do not have the capacity to do this? The country of China? It takes one single cracker or a small group at best to break into a system. This is not the Moon landing or building a nuke. It doesn't take a whole nation to crack into computers.
To be fair, being only a spokesman he probably doesn't really know anyway. But of course China has the capability.
This is simply part of the diplomatic game - you can't expect a government official to admit that his government does things that are less than absolutely angelic in its very nature. Would the US government admit to hiring assassins or having a policy of abducting people and taking them abroad to be tortured? Of course not. So let's put these sanctimonious outbursts to one side, everybody.
The real reason why this incident, if it actually happened, is not likely to have been perpetrated by Chinese government operators is that they would probably not be as clumsy as that. There is no need to hack you way through anything, for one thing - all you need is to have somebody, say a cleaner, go in and copy the stuff on to a USB stick. Like Terry Pratchett notes in his books - who cares about a lowly sweeper? This kind of thing is more likely to have been done by an amateur.
...for a reasonably small fee
How can they be so sure it's state sponsored? A lot of Tor exit nodes are based in China, surely attackers from anywhere else in the world using Tor for anonymity could be to blame?
Haven't we seen this strategy on southpark?
....Well, it was the japanese in that episode, but leave it to the chinese government to tap into truly brilliant strategy for international security diplomacy....
Ooh you american, such big penis. Chinese such small small penis. We no hurt computer american who has such mammothian big penis, we give you woman.
I actually stumbled across that once. I never thought I could be so completely disgusted whie laughing that hard at the same time. That is really like a horrible car wreck that you just can't pull your eyes away from no matter how aweful it is.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Chinpokomon Executive: You are American.
South Park Toy Store Owner: Yes.
Chinpokomon Executive: Ohhh, you must have very big penis!
South Park Toy Store Owner: Excuse me, I was just asking you what your up to with these toys.
Chinpokomon Executive: Nothing, we are very simple people with very small penis. Mr. Hosik's penis is especially small!
Mr. Hosik: So small.
Chinpokomon Executive: We cannot achieve so much with such small penis, but you American wow, penis so big, so big penis!
South Park Toy Store Owner: Well aah I guess it is pretty good size.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
What is the US supposed to do? We helped beat Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, then we had the Cold War and the evil Communists. Now we have no real enemies left. Terrorists? That is like the war against drugs, there is no end to it. Not to mention guys wearing rags living in barren fields doesn't exactly make for a dramatic foe. We need REAL enemies! What could be better than China? Lots of people who not only speak a different language but look different (always good), write different, aren't 100% Christian, and best of all are still (technically) Communist! If the US doesn't have an enemy then we start to look inward and realize that we are a materialistic, pointless, self centered, shallow society. That would hurt worse than any bombing.
with you, then I certainly would be in a tight spot. Not only do I not disagree with your position, but I was inspired by it and chose to take a rhetorical stroll, as it were, down Satire Lane. I think someone just asked me to get off their lawn...
damaged by dogma
You missed that part.
I know .... tweaking with Noam is pretty crazy too....