US Chamber of Commerce Infiltrated By Chinese Hackers

SpzToid writes "The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that a group of hackers in China breached the computer defenses of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The intrusion was quietly shut down in May 2010, while FBI investigations continue. 'A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Geng Shuang, said cyberattacks are prohibited by Chinese law and China itself is a victim of attacks. ... Still, the Chamber continues to see suspicious activity, they say. A thermostat at a town house the Chamber owns on Capitol Hill at one point was communicating with an Internet address in China, they say, and, in March, a printer used by Chamber executives spontaneously started printing pages with Chinese characters.'" According the article, the group "gained access to everything stored on its systems" and may have "had access to the network for more than a year before the breach was uncovered."

Comments

errr

[Anonymous Coward]

a printer used by Chamber executives spontaneously started printing pages with Chinese characters.'"

Did you try switching it off then back on again?

Re:errr

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, that part of the summary amused me. It's as if the following took place somewhere in China:

Good work, now print out that data you've discovered.
Yes sir... it should be on the printer now.
There's nothing here, what printer did you send it to?
Doh!!!!

Re:errr

[Megane]

I remember back around '04 or so, there was a virus that wanted to spread itself via SMB shares. If it managed to contact a printer, it somehow thought it was a file share and tried to copy its code over. This would result in hundreds of pages (thank you HP for form feed support in whatever printer language this was) being printed with a few garbage characters on each page. One printer actually wore out some rollers from having to do this.

But yeah, your average ID-10T couldn't identify a Chinese character from any other mojibake even if it tried to cook him fried rice.

Re:errr

[Synerg1y]

The hackers wanted to damage the US physically by using precious toner and paper as well as wearing down the printer parts.

This is good news

[Anonymous Coward]

a printer used by Chamber executives spontaneously started printing pages with Chinese characters.

Finally we've tracked down that bad printer driver to China.

Thermostat Infiltration Attack!!!

[germansausage]

"A thermostat at a town house the Chamber owns on Capitol Hill at one point was communicating with an Internet address in China".

Hey Larry, does it seem a little warm in here today?

Yeah, it is kinda warm.

Oh my God! We've been hacked by the Chinese!!!

Dear Hackers: Thank You!

[Anonymous Meoward]

To The Hackers This May Concern:

On behalf of all American citizens who understand the poisonous effects of lobbying on American democracy and society, I would like to thank you for your hard work. The US Chamber of Commerce is not a government agency, but may as well be so for all intents and purposes. It lobbies our elected officials to adopt policies that favor only big business, with the misguided belief that only laissez-faire capitalism will improve the American way of life. Nothing is further from the truth.

In short, you're doing us a favor.

If it's not too much to ask, could you please submit your findings to Wikileaks, or just post them on a publicly accessible blog? I think more of my countrymen should know about the inner workings of this nefarious herd of swine, and their attempts to sell naked greed as enlightened self-interest.

May we also interest you in targeting other groups, such as "The Club for Growth", "Americans for Prosperity", and "Crossroads GPS"? I'm sure you'd find them just as interesting.

Thanks again,
- Meoward

Re:"US Chamber" of Commerce

[Anonymous Coward]

"Think tank" is a bit generous, don't you think? "Bribery factory" is more like it.

Re:Idiots.

[Anonymous Coward]

Getting shot by your two put bull terriers?

That sounds like the best home defense system ever.