Posted on 09/05/2007 2:40:07 PM PDT by mojito
The Chinese military shut down the Pentagon's computer network for more than a week during an unprecedented cyber attack, according to leaked reports of an internal investigation.
China has flatly denied the allegation, dismissing it as a product of "Cold War" thinking.
However, American officials claim the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been implicated.
One US official told the Financial Times that an internal investigation had revealed the exact provenance of the attack in June this year, believed to be the most successful cyber attack ever carried out on the Pentagon.
The newspaper cited another source as saying there was a "very high level of confidence... trending towards total certainty" that the PLA was responsible.
Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said: "The Chinese government has consistently opposed and vigorously attacked according to the law all Internet-wrecking crimes, including hacking.
"Some people are making wild accusations against China ... These are totally groundless and also reflect a Cold War mentality."
A few days before the Pentagon breach, Chinese hackers were accused of infiltrating German government computers.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, raised the issue with China's premier, Wen Jiabao, in a visit to Beijing and afterwards the Chinese Foreign ministry pledged to take "firm and effective action" to combat international computer hacking.
A story in the Der Spiegel newspaper claimed that the hackers had been traced to Guangzhou and Lanzhou, which are both centres of operation for the PLA.
Chinese hackers have also been implicated in cyber-espionage attempts against other governments, including that of Britain.
The PLA regularly scans US military networks and the Pentagon is widely assumed to probe Chinese networks, but US officials said the penetration in June heightened concerns because of fears China had demonstrated the ability to disrupt the network at critical times.
"The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system...and the ability in a conflict situation to re-enter and disrupt on a very large scale," said a former official, who said the PLA had also penetrated the networks of US defence companies and think-tanks.
Ah, but China is our friend (she said sarcastically)
You hit us, we hit harder.
My guess is the Pentagon offered some bait and the Chinese took it. Good to know just what are “friends” can, and can’t do.
If they're still around, find the Hong Kong Blondes, give them all the equipment they need, and turn them loose.
I hope that Hillary and her Chinese buddies are not involved.
Well at the rate that we keep bringing them over to work at “internships” at Microsoft, Google, Sun, et al, I wouldn’t be surprised at their increased skill level.
I’m totally baffled at why we play fast and loose with a country that clearly does not mean us well.
I would tend to agree. They could probably tell the Chicoms were sniffing around and decided to let them 'get in'.
The story is just a cover so that the Chicoms think they got good info when they got exactly what we wanted them to have.
Unless Ironclad proof is available, that is. And of course assuming none of the principals suffers from a delayed case of Arkanicide.
Maybe that's why Mr. Hsu didn't show up in court, a bad case of Arkanicide.
The PLA was probably just checking to see if Hillary’s username & password were still active on the Pentagon Net. My information is that “PianoLegs” has been de-listed.
I just came back from 2 weeks vacation in Shanghai and Beijing. I have never met a more friendly and kind folk, a unique history and a very safe country (we’d walk down dark alleys at night and just innately knew we were safe). I highly recommend to all to visit China soon; we had a blast! They are on the fast track to a market economy in a very wise way and despite the rapid track and I’d expect the government to reform itself to a republic in 10-15 years and long as the US and UK don’t screw up in helping China in this effort to reform into a market ecomomy. This news about bad china food, toys and medicine is actually a good thing, cause when I was over there, I read in a china daily that Chinise gov’t has now demanded of their companies to clean themselves up, so to speak, so there there are no issues like these anymore in their exports. I have yet to read that (to me, inportant) announcemnent in any US paper.
All that said, I am mind boggled to see why China would risk damaging relations with the western governments if all this hacking into western military sites this is true.
I’m glad the Chinese are so friendly. Maybe you should mention this to the Chinese General who mentioned that their nuclear missles could hit LA.
Man, did you ever miss the intent of my post....
Sorry if I missunderstood.
I guess we'll have to water-board it out of you then...
Just joking...I also think of the PRC as more 'friend' than 'foe'. They have a need to saber rattle from time to time. And yes their government is all mucked up (although our Congress isn't going to be teaching them any lessons in civil responsibility anytime soon).
They persecute Christians, which is downright evil, but for commies they treat their Christians better than the Cubans and North Koreans.
And for sheer numbers, there are probably more Christians in the PRC than in any other Country -- so even though I take umbrage towards their government, I have to tip my hat to the people.
That said, I am trying as hard as I can to 'boycott' products made in the PRC simply because they don't have their head's screwed on with respect to product quality. For their own good they need to feel some financial backlash so they can get the proper attitude adjustment.
Cheaper is 'nice' -- but if the product is crap, or dangerous, they ought not be trying to shave off the extra cents. They need to learn this the 'hard' way for the lesson to 'stick'.
Yes, the gov’t is red but they do have the balls to recognize that a free markent system is the way of the future and are rapidly going that way, more so than the russians. Like I said, I’d be surprised if they remain red in a couple more decades. They have set up Shanghai as their experiment capitalism city, more so than Hong Kong, and it’s bringing in almost 10 percent of their growth already. That’s why I’m surprised they are jepordizing that with their military acts via hacking, etc. At any rate, I’d rather have china on our friend side than foe, and mainly for the fact that the average people I’ve met are really a great folk; I’d much rather have these cold war era guys as our friends than the russians.
“The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system...and the ability in a conflict situation to re-enter and disrupt on a very large scale,”
I think they aughtta fix that.
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