Slashdot Mirror


FBI Warns Industry of Chinese Cyber Campaign

daten writes The FBI on Wednesday issued a private warning to industry that a group of highly skilled Chinese government hackers was in the midst of a long-running campaign to steal valuable data from U.S. companies and government agencies. "These state-sponsored hackers are exceedingly stealthy and agile by comparison with the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 ... whose activity was publicly disclosed and attributed by security researchers in February 2013," said the FBI in its alert, which referred to a Chinese military hacker unit exposed in a widely publicized report by the security firm Mandiant.

24 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. It's time to start a trade war. by Isca · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because at this point, they've already gone to war with us. It would be devastating for the US economy in the short term but long term I'm not so sure.

    Free trade doesn't work if both sides are not playing the same game.

    1. Re:It's time to start a trade war. by sdguero · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Trade Wars lead to real wars.

    2. Re:It's time to start a trade war. by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We're not playing the same game?
      Just how deep in the sand do you have your head buried?

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

      What China is doing is a drop in the bucket compared to what the USA is doing.

    3. Re: It's time to start a trade war. by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Informative

      lol, you modded me down and then replied anon? You truly are a coward aren't you?

      http://www.reuters.com/article...
      Even cowards can use Google.
      We are steeling trade secrets and giving them to corporations friendly to the US government. We're doing exactly the same thing China is doing, just on a much much larger scale.

    4. Re:It's time to start a trade war. by jhol13 · · Score: 2

      Yea, CIA admitted, before 911, that their main task was commercial espionage. So now they are threatened that Chinese might be faster?
      (yes, there are documented cases, e.g. german windmill technology in production being patented in USA)

    5. Re:It's time to start a trade war. by knightghost · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These aren't rogue groups. They operate with the full support of the Chinese government.

      I agree with hacking back but the only value you'd gain is if you handed the data over to corporations, and that's a big bad can of worms to open.

      No casualties? The median lifetime earnings of a USA worker is $1.5m. For ever $1.5m in economic damage, you've effectively killed one person.

    6. Re: It's time to start a trade war. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      no it's not a real war. Copying a Word document is completely unequal to dropping a bomb on a village or shooting somebody in the head.

      Shame on you for equating the two - stop being a sociopath.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    7. Re:It's time to start a trade war. by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2

      voiced by 'muricans online it is very hard to tell.

      Just a quick note: insulting people with differing opinions (no matter how right you may think you are) doesn't actually help you make your case, although it may increase your innate sense of superiority. In addition, those "'muricans" who might otherwise agree with you may just write you off as another bigoted foreign asshole who lumps everyone in a given country together.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    8. Re: It's time to start a trade war. by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

      This is what they flat out admit:

      In short, the officials say, while the N.S.A. cannot spy on Airbus and give the results to Boeing, it is free to spy on European or Asian trade negotiators and use the results to help American trade officials — and, by extension, the American industries and workers they are trying to bolster.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05... ...and that's what they admit...

      China admits nothing and we have no proof that the hackers have anything to do with the Chinese government.

    9. Re: It's time to start a trade war. by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      The US admits to being actively engaged in economic warfare against other countries with rabid psychopathic claims of it being somehow legal and complains, whines and then ruthlessly attacks other countries when they do far less, like threatening to stop using the World $US Bank and cease propping up the US economy. This stupidity is going to get a lot worse being prodded along by the US military industrial complex, screaming for more money now, a lot of other allied countries are going to start getting caught up in the cross fire.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. TAO by MagickalMyst · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The NSA refers to its own "Hacker Units" as TAO, or "Tailored Access Operations".

    TAO is also a Chinese word that means "the Way".

    --
    Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
  3. In my day.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The group’s sophistication is demonstrated less in how it gains access to targets’ computers and more in how it moves “laterally’’ once inside the system, disguising its behavior to look normal so it goes undetected, said Peter B. LaMontagne, Novetta Solutions chief executive officer.

    In my day, spies had to get into the building, gain access to the blueprint file cabinet drawers, photograph them - on film no less and getting the exposure right, and then make their way out without getting caught.

    It was ALL social engineering back then - OLD school.

    You whipper snappers sitting behind your keyboards eating Cheetoes or Lo Mein (whatever the case may be) and drinking Wired Bull, or whatever those caffeine drinks are called, are just a bunch of lazy good for nothings!

    We had to WALK and GET INTO a building and even TALK to people!

    Pffft!

    I'd like to see some Chinese spy walk into a high tech firm and go un-noticed!

    H1-bs? Oh, shit! Yeah, ....Um.....never mind.

    Captcha "crackpot" - Ahahahahahahahahaha!

  4. What's the difference? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    I presume the company I work for is a target, but it's no less a target from any other government.

    This isn't news I can use. There's no behavior change that is a rational response to this. It's not like we didn't already know there are several governments trying to get access to all out stuff.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:What's the difference? by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      It's important to keep up the fear factor. People are more compliant.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:What's the difference? by thieh · · Score: 2

      Of course, If you count in the problem that the FBI is also advocating against encryption, one must wonder whether the FBI is commiting treason by letting foreign entities searching our secrets.

  5. War? by Stan92057 · · Score: 2

    And this isn't an act of War why?

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  6. Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, how dare they trespass on the FBI's domain like that!

  7. That's ok since... by GerardAtJob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since the US does not need any warrant to hack in a remote computer (out of US), why Chinese should not hack into US server without warrant or warning??

    It's legal isn't it ?

    --
    I can't call that English ;-)
  8. China, home to government sponsored thieves? by TiggertheMad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is news that nerds might be interested in. If you have no use for it, clearly you aren't a nerd. Go elsewhere for your news. I am tired of people bitching about stories that don't pertain to them. If you don't find them useful, then don't read them.

    This is important news. If China is stepping up it's state sponsored spying and digital theft, I want to know about it. It might be useful background info to know so that when the president decides to park a cruse missile on a building in China, you know some of the history that lead to this decision.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  9. Re:Well, DUH. by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 2

    Anybody with a brain knows this has been going on for years.

    You are a WIT, my friend. Have you considered stand-up comedy? Good thing you posted anonymously, because that kind of blazing display of wordsmithery is likely to make you some enemies.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  10. China just following "The Art of War" by BoRegardless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sun Tzu said "I would rather have one good spy than 10,000 soldiers."

  11. A Way Out by JimSadler · · Score: 2

    Consider the size of US debts to China. Consider that we could seize and keep Chinese assets for the crime of cyber espionage. Or as an alternative we could try a hack that destroys the economic system of China. Maybe China needs a formal warning that we make make them howl, gnash their teeth and cast them into darkness for eternity.

  12. Re:we need a new NSA by brrant · · Score: 2

    The USA should have an agency (maybe call it the NSA+) that's tasked with helping companies shore up cyber defenses... Maybe even doing code reviews and penetration testing of common software to look for vulnerabilities. Instead we have an NSA that exploits vulnerabilities and creates new backdoors into software and networks with no real oversight or accountability

    While they merrily install backdoors in the systems of every business they, "help."

  13. FBI Doesn't plant evidence by Etherwalk · · Score: 2

    The chinese might break into your secure email server, but they won't plant child porn on it in an attempt to incriminate you. The FBI, on the other hand..

    Citation needed. Most FBI & Justice types I've met would not do that kind of thing. People who are into law enforcement have political agendas, yes, but there's a big red line between acting on a political agenda and outright felony criminal behavior.

    Sure, the FBI will sometimes publicly support things which hurt as a society because it makes it easier for them to do their jobs (e.g. fighting encryption), and they do a lot of entrapment of people who go along with whatever crime they set up (in most domestic terrorism cases you hear about the FBI is the one selling the arms to the "terrorists").

    But at the end of the day, they're generally law enforcement guys interested in arresting people who violate the law, not in pretending innocent people have violated the law.