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Penn State Yanks Engineering Network From Internet After China-Based Attack

Posted by Soulskill on from the another-day-another-breach dept.

coondoggie writes: Penn State's College of Engineering has disconnected its network from the Internet in response to two sophisticated cyberattacks – one from a what the university called a "threat actor based in China" – in an attempt to recover all infected systems. The university said there was no indication that research data or personal information was stolen in the attacks, though usernames and passwords had been compromised.

15 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. A logical response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There are Chinese nationals at Penn State and every other university in America, displacing our own people. Why don't we start revoking student VISAs as a response?

    1. Re:A logical response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, and they'll switch to Mastercards. Great plan.

      Wait, what? :)

    2. Re:A logical response by epyT-R · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because the radical left on campuses would say that's racist and 'anti-social.'

    3. Re:A logical response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because Microsoft would lose all their new H-1B employees.

    4. Re:A logical response by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because the radical left on campuses would say that's racist and 'anti-social.'

      And the left would be right.

    5. Re:A logical response by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Why don't we start revoking student VISAs as a response?

      Yes, that is so much better than implementing decent security and salting passwords.

    6. Re:A logical response by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are Chinese nationals at Penn State and every other university in America, displacing our own people. Why don't we start revoking student VISAs as a response?

      Because the radical left on campuses would say that's racist and 'anti-social.'

      Here's a thought... perhaps we should stop this xenophobic whining and retaliate against the culprits rather than applying a shotgun remedy like revoking the student visas of every Chinese person in sight regardless of whether they were involved in these attacks or not? The "drop a 2000lb bomb on it" approach may be intensely satisfying, especially to the political right. However, it causes collateral damage, it is therefore inelegant and it reeks of stupidity and desperation. Just play the old eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth game. If the Chinese can set up 'cyber warfare' units and think they can attack the USA with impunity in times of peace without it being an act of war then surely they will not complain if the USA uses the 'cyber warfare' branch of it's military to launch attacks inside China against the assholes who are doing this? ... and if they do complain about being hoisted by their own petard then they'll just look pathetic. The USA does have a credible 'cyber warfare' capability does it not?

  2. Just block China already. by andydread · · Score: 2

    To reduce the susceptibility to these attacks engineering/research institutions and corporations should just block originating source IP blocks from China. It may not reduce all such attacks but it should help

    1. Re:Just block China already. by Virtucon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So protecting your data and your intellectual property is racist? That's a new play on the race card. It's not about blocking the Chinese people from accessing information, shit their own government does a pretty good job of that already. It's about blocking concerted, direct espionage against US companies, educational institutions and the government. It's not some pimple faced teenager trying to break in for fun, it's about the theft of our technology. Sure, technology leaks and history is replete with examples but this wholesale theft needs to be curtailed and if necessary start blocking IP address ranges; better yet we need a great firewall of China for traffic going to/from China.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  3. A Message from The President of Penn State by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 2
    First off, is this hyperbole?

    Moving forward, we all will need to take additional steps to protect ourselves, our identities and our information from a new global wave of cybercrime and cyberespionage.

    Second, and most importantly, how long until the US and China "come in from the cold" and enter an actual hot war(with the way events are unfolding in the South China Sea, and this cold war that has been going on for the last 15 years)?

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  4. Re:As long as the Republicans continue to rule... by Jawnn · · Score: 2

    What do you say of the cybersecurity surrounding Hillary Clinton? The real solution is to elect a rock ribbed conservative to the Presidency like Ted Cruz who won't be squeamish about bustin' some heads.

    You don't have any idea how moronic that sounds, do you?

  5. Re:As long as the Republicans continue to rule... by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

    I thought the President was a Democrat. When did he stop ruling?

  6. Re:Penn should hire Hillary's cybersecurity people by bobbied · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What do you say of the cybersecurity surrounding Hillary Clinton?

    It sounds like Penn should hire Hillary Clinton's cybersecurity people. There is absolutely no evidence at all that her basement mail server was ever hacked.

    Of course there is no evidence.... She literally erased EVERYTHING on the server. Oh sure, she had some e-mails printed, but the server, and the E-mail supposedly on it where erased before anybody had a chance to look. All we really have is her word that it never was hacked, not that she'd know if it was anyway.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  7. Re:As long as the Republicans continue to rule... by Duhavid · · Score: 2

    I thought the president was elected? When did we stop ruling?

    --
    emt 377 emt 4
  8. Re:Passwords were compromised? by radarskiy · · Score: 2

    Or maybe use use of "compromised" comes from a responsible adult to mean that "a copy of the salted and encrypted db has been made which they could possibly brute-force before the heat-death of the universe so we should go ahead and replace all entries now".