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Two Chinese Schools Reportedly Tied To Online Attacks

Posted by Soulskill on from the hacking-the-googles-was-just-the-midterm-exam dept.

squidw* writes "Online attacks on Google and other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation. From the NY Times: '... the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. ... The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry. Jiaotong has one of China’s top computer science programs. Just a few weeks ago its students won an international computer programming competition organized by IBM — the “Battle of the Brains” — beating out Stanford and other top-flight universities. Lanxiang, in east China’s Shandong Province, is a huge vocational school that was established with military support and trains some computer scientists for the military.'"

19 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Hum. by bbqsrc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd like to say I'm shocked by the previous 4 moronic comments, but this is slashdot, so I am not. So they confirm where the attacks came from, where does it go from there? Banning the IP range of those schools from Google services? I somehow doubt they'll find a way to directly pin this on the Chinese government, regardless of if they did it or not.

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    1. Re:Hum. by m.ducharme · · Score: 3, Informative

      China's already started dumping its T-bills. Strangely, this doesn't seem to be getting a lot of play in the media...I wonder why?

      Times of India

      Reuters

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  2. They are anti-American... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone who has experienced being in a class with any large number of Chinese students (that actually came from and lived in China, just to be clear) will tell you that many of them are deeply programmed to be anti-American. I used to read "USA sucks China rules" on the desks in the library all the time at SUNY Buffalo. I don't blame the students but it's true nonetheless.

  3. Yeah. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, so what? China is in a cold war with the west. Sadly, the west has not woke up to this. This is just one more of their approaches. And to be honest, it is SMART on their part. The west is working hard to avoid another cold war, but we are in it and losing it. If China was a democracy, then it would be different. However, you will note that all of the nations that are not full democracies are coming together, and they are winning.

  4. Re:Act Of War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You do realize that by those standards of treating industrial/state espionage as an act of war you should also be including countries like france, germany, israel, russia, south africa and so on? Not to mention the dozens and dozens of countries the US regularly performs hostile intelligence operations on? So you're really hoping for WWIII? Welcome to the real world, kid.

  5. The most awesome vocational school in the world by lobsterturd · · Score: 5, Informative

    Shanghai Jiaotong University? Fair enough. But also see Roland Soong's translations about the vocational school.

  6. Re:Act Of War by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would like to know what the U.S. contingency plan is for war with China. Look at almost any product in the U.S. today, and it is from China. If we declare war with them, do we suddenly have no more imported goods? This is not a scenario that I like to ponder.

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  7. this attack finally convinced me by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    to go ABC with my buying habits, ie Anything But China. I refuse unless absolutely necessary to buy goods manufactured in China. They are obvious hellbent on telling the rest of the world what they are allowed to do(such as meet with the Dalai Lama), not to mention they have the most hypocritical trade policy on the planet. Fuck them, fuck them all.

    It's not easy, but if you are vigilant you can find really good deals on stuff not made in China(which is pretty much all shit quality anyway). I've noticed that clothes made in Vietnam have much better quality than those made in China, ditto for electronics and Japan. I have a camera that is made in Japan and has lasted a long time despite being repeatedly abused. It was certainly worth the extra bit of money I paid over the Chinese made piece of shit I bought before. The last pair of shoes I bought that were made in China fell apart in a couple of months, the US made ones I am wearing now are much durable. The list goes on. Boycott China.

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    Monstar L
    1. Re:this attack finally convinced me by DeltaQH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But don't boycott Taiwan (Repuplic of China)

    2. Re:this attack finally convinced me by CalcuttaWala · · Score: 3, Interesting

      i would strongly support the view that Chinese merchandise is really third class stuff. india too is flooded with all kinds of really dirt cheap stuff -- buckets, torches and a million other household goods -- the quality is astonishly bad. really wonder why people cannot make a simple and rational choice.

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  8. Jiaotong university topped the ACM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Four Chinese teams and four Russian teams dominated the top 10 rankings of the 2010 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC). Shanghai Jiaotong University took first place followed by Moscow State University in second place, and National Taiwan University in third place. "

    From http://www.acm.org/press-room/news-releases/2010/icpc-2010

    No wonder why they are so good.

  9. The racist 1940s by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >>>"Beware of the yellow peril! Be a patriotic American ...!"

    +1 funny. (dark humor)

    People who admire FDR always forget this part of his presidency, where he locked-up American citizens and deprived them of their rights to property, trial by jury, free speech, and so on. Why? Simply because these Americans looked like asians. - In many respects FDR was our worst president. I know that's an unpopular view, nevertheless that's what I think.

    I hope IF we have another war with the Asian continent (i.e. China) that we do a better job of obeying the Constitution instead of ignoring it.

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    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    1. Re:The racist 1940s by littlewink · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Chinese immigrants to the USA are far less patriotic (to the USA) than were Japanese immigrants to the USA during WWII. In fact, somewhere between one-third and one-half of Chinese immigrants are already spying/aiding for the Chinese mainland in some way. Ask any sample of Chinese immigrants to the USA about where their loyalties lie. At the very best they are ambivalent.

      In a war with China the USA would have serious problems with its internal Chinese population. The lessons of the unjust Japanese imprisonment in WWII would not apply. We would be forced to imprison the Chinese. That would not be a racist act but a reasonable and necessary one.

      You have made the mistake of comparing two situations that appear to be similar but that are in fact quite different.

    2. Re:The racist 1940s by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're saying this like this was a bad thing. We did the same thing in Canada. As a 1st generation descendant of German/Japanese parents let me just say. Given the opportunity at the time, plenty would have been happy to follow the orders of the fatherland and/or the god-emperor to do whatever it takes to kill you from within.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:The racist 1940s by indiechild · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm ethnic Chinese and was born in Vietnam, but the difference is that I grew up in Western countries, so I never had a chance to be brainwashed and indoctrinated by an oppressive dictatorship. With even teenagers from mainland China, it's already too late, they've been through the schools, they've only known one reality and one truth: China's. They'll come to your country, and they'll help steal military/industrial/trade secrets, they'll help harass and spy on dissidents, human rights activists, Tibetans, Uighurs etc. There are some courageous exceptions (dissidents), but for the most part, this is overwhelmingly true.

      This is basically what has been happening ever since Mao. The communists have destroyed a beautiful country and turned it into something truly ugly.

      So yes, I'm afraid what littlewink says is true. It's almost certain that China will go to war with the USA and Taiwan within the next 5-15 years. It's as inevitable as the next big stockmarket crash and double-dip recession, aka Great Depression.

      My loyalties do not lie with any one country (many would call me a traitor for saying this). I just want to do the right thing -- I'll answer to the truth, not to some arbitrary nationalistic or patriotic agenda. I'm in Australia, which is a close ally to the USA. Once war with China breaks out, I have no doubt that I'll be taunted and spat on in the streets, just like the Nisei were.

  10. That isn't the question at all by Colin+Smith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The question is, who do you get to buy your debts?

     

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  11. Verbal diarrhea by Internalist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry

    WTF is wrong with people that they can't shut up?? I see stuff like this all the time, and it boggles my mind that people on the inside are willing to discuss stuff that is likely to at least partially jeopardize the investigation under way. Surely it's not a profit-motive...I can't imagine journalists can pay very much for this kind of information...so what is it?

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    Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. -- Wernher von Braun
    1. Re:Verbal diarrhea by tabdelgawad · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is not a leak. It's a standard way of releasing information to the public without having to make an official statement/accusation. And the New York Times doesn't pay for information, period. Don't you (and your moderators) read any newspapers?!

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      Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
  12. Re:Act Of War by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Simple. You'll buy products from American corporations. Double benefit: on one hand, you rescue American companies out of the economic depression and on the other hand, you make Chinese companies lose.

    Where are the factories? Where are the means of production? Where are the steel mills? The U.S. has a lot of rebuilding to do.