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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."
Somehow I suspect these "Chinese characters" were just random ASCII characters you tend to see when a client with a corrupt printer driver tries to print. When some security official comes around asking about anything suspicious, John Executive takes to opportunity to jump up and do his part for national security!
a printer used by Chamber executives spontaneously started printing pages with Chinese characters.
Finally we've tracked down that bad printer driver to China.
The US Chamber of Commerce is a lobbying organization -- it's not like they have Industrial Super Secrets. Besides, a high proportion of their clients are Chinese anyway and presumably have pretty good access to the organization already.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I'd just like to take this opportunity to point out how insidious it is to purposely label a highly partisan think tank with a name that is obviously meant to seem like a legit government agency.
Do you think China will be willing to shut down the rest of our lobbies for us too? Then we maybe able to accomplish something in government.
The US Chamber of Commerce is a LOBBYING organization (y'know, some of the folks behind SOPA and other crap) and is NOT the US Department of Commerce, the cabinet department that (supposedly) promotes economic growth.
I'm having trouble feeling bad or worried about this.
"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!!!
It's a lobbying group for businesses. Therefore, the Chinese can hack away all they want with my blessing. No harm done.
In fact, considering the harm brought onto US citizens by the Chamber of Commerce, the more damage done to them by the Chinese, the better it is for American citizens.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
This story is ridiculous. It's not like the US Chamber of commerce does anything meaningful at all other than lobby for no taxes. Anyway, does anyone doubt that the NSA and CIA also hack into foreign servers and desktops to steal corporate data? I am sure that back when the Russians were developing MiG fighters the US "hacked" into their computers and stole all the blueprints or if they didn't, they would... and Boeing was/is the beneficiary of that. So honestly gimme a break. Why wouldn't the chinese develop their ability to attack american tech infrastructure? Since the US and China is probably going to go to war over Taiwan within 50 years, and the US will be attacking from the sea with Drones while a million chinese try to literally row their way over from the mainland, I think their best strategy is to learn to disable the American computer systems somehow.
if your life is such a big joke then why should I care?
A thermostat at a town house the Chamber owns on Capitol Hill at one point was communicating with an Internet address in China
What the fuck is a thermostat doing being accessible from the internet?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
You're sound like the type that would blame the homeowner for keeping their doors unlocked instead of the intruder for going in without permission.
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
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
The US Chamber of Commerce is a lobbying organization -- it's not like they have Industrial Super Secrets. Besides, a high proportion of their clients are Chinese anyway and presumably have pretty good access to the organization already.
True, The Chamber Of commerce also hacks anyone who criticizes their illegal and immoral behaviour. HBGary Federal payback perhaps?
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.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
As such a home owner, I would blame myself for leaving the door unlocked.
However, I would blame the intruder for getting shot, or mauled by my two pit bull terriers.
The hackers wanted to damage the US physically by using precious toner and paper as well as wearing down the printer parts.
It's been well known to me, for years, that the local chamber of commerce is comprised of local business owners. I'm honestly not sure how anyone could be confused about the non-governmental status of any level of CoC.
Right - I think the more insidious aspect of the name "US Chamber of Commerce" is that it implies for many a parent organization to the local chambers of commerce.
Which isn't true - they're a nasty lobbying organization that happened to pick a name that borders on fraudulent misappropriation of mark. The local chambers have had to pend the past 5 years or so telling their communities, "no, that's not us."
My God, it's Full of Source!
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