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China Says It Is the Target of US Hack Attacks
An anonymous reader writes "Officials at the Chinese Defense Ministry say hackers from the U.S. have been attacking Chinese military websites. 'The sites were subject to about 144,000 hacking attacks each month last year, two thirds of which came from the U.S., according to China's defense ministry. The issue of cyber hacking has strained relations between the two countries.' This follows recent hacks from people in China on high-profile U.S. sites, as well as a report accusing the Chinese government of supporting a hacking group. '[Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng] called on U.S. officials to "explain and clarify" what he said were recent U.S. media reports that Washington would carry out "pre-emptive" cyber attacks and expand its online warfare capabilities. Such efforts are "not conducive to the joint efforts of the international community to enhance network security," he said.'"
About time. And preemptive my ass. China has been making state-orchestrated cyber attacks for years now. There's a war in cyberspace, did they just think the U.S. wouldn't show up?
...this kind of stuff will absolutely enhance network security. It's geopolitical stability that's in danger in the long term. But if we didn't destroy ourselves with nukes during the cold war, I think we'll come out of this one okay too.
Who would have guessed the US was engaged in offensive cyber operations?
sudo make me a sandwich
Sorry, can't find it in me to feel at all sorry for them.
If the US is under cyber attack from China and China is under cyber attack from the US.. Anybody ever thought that maybe it's a 3rd party group doing the work? spoofing IPs? etc.. Sheesh.
This is a pretty good option for small nations who want to get back at larger ones.
Step 1: buy server time with bitcoin from someone in China
Step 2: hack some highly visible US companies with basic java exploits.
Step 3: stand back and watch them hack each other for the next 10 years with professional grade stuff.
Don't make me have to stop this car and separate you two!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
hackers from the U.S. have been attacking Chinese military websites.
Wake me up when the U.S. military is hacking Chinese civilian/banking computers or trying to SSH into everything.
They're claiming an original art patent on spying on foreign governments using hackers.
Even if this were true (and all signs point that it's just a knee-jerk reaction by China), what the Chinese are reporting is attacks against their military infrastructure from US IPs. This is way different than what the NYT and Mandiant claim the Chinese are doing which is leveraging the capabilities of it's cyber army (god I hate that term) against private corporations for the betterment of it's government controlled businesses.
That's a huge difference. Yes the US is probably targeting the Chinese army but it sure as heck isn't specifically targeting Huawei and giving the information over to Cisco.
Seriously China, grow up.
Wake me when American military hackers are targeting Chinese civilians.
What's probably happened, is that they got all butthurt at being found out for the criminal hacking and economic espionage, went rummaging through their logs, found a ping sweep from some US IP and said "we're morally equivalent to you, we get hacked too".
The Red Chinese *still* come across as idiots and piss-weak Third World losers. That hasn't changed in the slightest.
The point of this announcement is to distract from the criticism they are receiving for launching hack attacks by painting a picture of everyone does it. So whether its true or not they would make this claim. I would believe they are receiving hack attacks from the US, but 2/3rds of them having a US origin sounds suspicious.
The Mandiant report links the attacks to the Chinese government. To a specific group in a specific location during business hours Beijing local time. The Chinese see attacks from US IP address and blame US.
This is typical political BS so prevalent in the US. When the Dems blame the Republicans for some issue, the Republicans say the Dems do it too. That's regardless of whether either statement was true or not. The point is to deflect blame and raise suspicion of the other side.
Further, since we can't trust the media to actually dig into the actual truth on this or any issue, the Chinese likely will be successful in their efforts.
> Such efforts are "not conducive to the joint efforts of the international community to enhance network security," he said.
Perhaps statements like "we're just defending ourselves" are not productive towards network security. But cyber-attacking China? China cyber-attacking the US? You must be kidding.
Even bacteria "know" that being attacked causes the greatest advances in defenses. What greater motivator can there be than an active and verifiable threat?