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Iranians, Russians, and Chinese Hackers Are After You, Says Lawmaker

Velcroman1 writes "The House Intelligence Committee is warning that 'time is running out' before the next major cyberattack: The Russians, Iranians, Chinese, and others are likely already on your computer. 'You have criminal organizations trying to get into your personal computer and steal your personal stuff. And by the way, the Chinese are probably on your computer, the Russians are probably on your personal computer, the Iranians are already there,' House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R.-MI) said. 'They're trying to steal things that they think are valuable or use your computer to help them steal from someone else,' he said. 'That's a real problem.'"

34 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Not me! by Endo13 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm wearing my trusty tin-foil hat!

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    There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    1. Re:Not me! by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

      He said 'trusty' not 'rusty'.

      That's the problem with aluminum, all the noise it makes as it rattles around inside your head.

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. So we need to snoop on your PC too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    just to make sure they aren't and for your own protection.....

  3. Wow..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The linked article says it all. Nothing but more fearmongering from Fox News, and promotion of CISPA. Someone needs to have their editor's permissions revoked. oh wait....

    1. Re:Wow..... by Zemran · · Score: 2

      The idea that any Russian hacker would want to steal the ID of some poor US guy is a little dreamy...

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    2. Re:Wow..... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2

      Forget the article. My question is, how do the Russians and Chinese as well as the Iranians all manage to fit on my computer? I mean, heck, there's hardly enough room for me to stand on the thing myself!

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    3. Re:Wow..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The fox news article says : "Experts say Rogers may be stretching the truth: most people’s computers likely aren’t infected by agents of foreign governments.
      “The Iranians, the Chinese, and the Russians are probably already on my computer? Sheesh ... I guess it must be getting pretty crowded in there,” joked Graham Cluley, a consultant with U.K. Web security company Sophos."
      But don't let me stop your obligatory bashing of fox news. I'm guessing you don't consider your day complete until you've done so at least once.

  4. Re:lol by cusco · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Amazing. A lawmaker from Michigan learned to read a newspaper headline.

    Oh, wait, that's a lawmaker from Michigan. He's just spouting what the lobbyists from Symantec and McAfee are whispering in his year. False alarm.

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  5. Oh noes... by SmSlDoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real problem is normal users that do not really know what is happening on their computers and really do not care.
    It always brings me back to images of windows users with 20 different toolbars loaded in to IE.

    1. Re:Oh noes... by SmSlDoo · · Score: 2

      My all time favorite catch was when we noticed one of the IPs in an attack was from Microsoft's corporate office.
      Needless to say they were probably running IE.

  6. Uhm yeah by lesincompetent · · Score: 2

    Lame attempt at distraction there uncle Sam!

  7. "criminal organizations" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You have criminal organizations trying to get into your personal computer and steal your personal stuff.

    You mean like the RIAA/MPAA and the Federal government?

  8. big brother anti virus incoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Effective immediately: government mandated state controlled anti-virus. Fuck off lawmakers, my PC is clean I don't need your help.

  9. Let the Fear Mongering Begin by Laebshade · · Score: 2

    What's wrong, Republican Rogers? Has the physical terrorism boogeyman waned to so little that you must now bring out a new candidate?

  10. Re:don't put all computers online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How to you transfer files to those computers. USB drives? That's how hackers breach company networks.

    Corporations penetrating my computer for data mining? No. Corporations tracking me every way they can without directly hacking? Yes.

    What do you do with your never connected computers? The best I can come up with is watching movies or playing old games. Or do you have both side by side with your bank account open in the online computer and your other finical documents open of the offline computer? Though in that case criminals would be more interested in your banking password anyway. No one is going to manually look through your personal financial spreadsheets.

  11. republican shill by nimbius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    banging his wardrum. this is the same asshole who thought iraq was trying to kill us all. how'd that turn out for ya mike? http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17707705/39591107

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    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:republican shill by CBravo · · Score: 2

      If someone is 50% wrong all the time I call him incompetent and fire his ass.

      --
      nosig today
  12. ISP Egress Filtering... by sillivalley · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How much of the crap we put up with would go away if ISPs instituted egress filtering?

    Oh, that's not a panacea; it's not going to cure all the interweb's problems overnight, but it would sure as hell eliminate a lot of the low-level crap that goes on.

    (grumble grumble grumble)

  13. Re:The house intelligence committee by Zemran · · Score: 2

    an oxymoron...

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  14. Re:lol by yurtinus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oh 1999, how I miss you. Back then I was working at the local CompUSA and had a lady come in looking for security software:

    her: "I have a hacker in my computer"
    me: "Oh, you mean a virus?"
    her: "No, it's my neighbor. He's gotten in there and I need a program to get him out"
    me: (head explode)

    I do wish I had recorded the entire conversation, but I couldn't convince her that if the her modem wasn't connected to the internet, nobody could do anything with her computer from the outside. She'd gone as far as turning off and unplugging the computer. He was coming through the power lines, through the TV, he was already *in there* hacking away even with the power turned off... I eventually gave up and sent her off with some firewall software. These are the kinds of people we need to get some rational thought into, Gods help us.

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    +1 Disagree
  15. My concerns by xs650 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a USian, I'm more concerned about US corporations and US government agencies being after me, they are the ones that can do and are most likely to do me some harm. And, I'm not even concerned enough about them to wear a tinfoil hat.

    1. Re:My concerns by jc42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As a USian, I'm more concerned about US corporations and US government agencies being after me, they are the ones that can do and are most likely to do me some harm.

      This is probably the most important thing to get across. The US population has been far more damaged by the likes of HUAC and the various secretive "intelligence" agencies than by any foreign bogeymen.

      This isn't just a US problem, either. I've read a few comments from historians on the topic, saying that the data shows that during the last century, far more people (in the world as a whole) died due to their own government's actions than from any foreign soldiers or other attackers.

      The data isn't nearly as good for previous centuries, but what data there is supports the claim for the rest of our history. The biggest danger everywhere comes from our own rulers, who rarely have our interests at heart.

      In the on-topic case of network security, it's fairly clear that the primary interest of the US and all other governments is in controlling the communication of their own citizens.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  16. Re:lol by gmuslera · · Score: 2, Funny

    They think we won't notice the elephant (and the donkey) in the room.

  17. Always need boogeymen by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It could be worse. What if they started flying remote controlled drones around the world killing people with impunity?

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  18. Re:2 Computers per Person? by DogDude · · Score: 2

    Each one has four, but he changes them at least once a day, because everybody knows that tinfoil that's too full of Omega waves is useless.

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    I don't respond to AC's.
  19. One solution for a lot of the ID theft parts ... by Skapare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... is to require businesses to do a better job of distinguishing between mere identity, and actual authenticated authorization. For example, your SSN is just some numbers that can refer to you. Having an SSN is absolutely not authorization. If someone uses you SSN and a business chooses to charge your or open accounts to allow such charges, then they have failed to obtain authorization. In such a case, it should be required by new sensible law that if you state for the record that you did not authorize the transactions or whatever, then that business may not take any action whatsoever unless and until they can prove that you actually did authorize it. The "not take any action" means they cannot collect on debts, cannot place debts with a debt collector, cannot put it on your credit report (must take it off if already did). It has to be like it never happened.

    The big problem with ID theft is that these businesses are not checking authorization. They need to start checking authorization or simply eat the loss.

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    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  20. Re:don't put all computers online by hackula · · Score: 2

    But Captain Adama, we haven't seen the Cylons in over 40 years!!!

  21. Re:lol by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2

    "Waiter, there a fusion center in my soup!"

    Did you order the Spicy Dumpling Borscht with Arde?

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  22. Re:lol by electron+sponge · · Score: 4, Funny

    1999 called

    Did you warn them about 9/11?

  23. Re:lol by blueturffan · · Score: 2

    1999 - 1967 = 32 years

    Unless the AC was referring to the album by The Police, which was released in 1981.

  24. Good Lord!!! by sethradio · · Score: 2

    Only Losedows systems get broken into. Why not pass a legislation making Losedows illegal? It's not like it's going to be any more unconstitutional then CISPA is already...

    --
    "Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race." -Albert Einstein
  25. Totally using this in the future... by ZeroPly · · Score: 2

    Hell, I'm using this... I'm printing this story out and laminating it. If I'm lucky I'll be able to buy a print copy that has this.

    << fast forward to where the US is a fully fascist state, maybe 2015 or so >>

    FBI/other fascist type: Zeroply, explain the 8TB of encrypted data on your home computer?
    Me: To prevent people hacking in and getting my data.
    FBI: The only reason you would need a 4096 bit RSA key, and AES/Twofish/Serpent cascade is to hide things from the government.
    Me: It's to keep the Chinese and Russians out, they just got into my computer two years ago.
    FBI: Lol wut?
    Me: (whips out article) Here's the official press release from Congress. I'm not changing jack shit until I get an OK from my elected representative.

    Ta-da!!!

    --
    Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
  26. Re:lol by yurtinus · · Score: 2

    Dude, iPads are known to cause ice storms.

    sheesh, some people don't know nothin'.

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    +1 Disagree