Pentagon Hacked By China

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American ­officials. (Financial Times

Big Southern hat tip to Infidels Are Cool. Here's the story:

The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack.

Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People’s Liberation Army.

One senior US official said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origins of the attack. Another person familiar with the event said there was a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” that the PLA was responsible. The defence ministry in Beijing declined to comment on Monday.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, raised reports of Chinese infiltration of German government computers with Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, in a visit to Beijing, after which the Chinese foreign ministry said the government opposed and forbade “any criminal acts undermining computer systems, including hacking”. [snip]

“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 penetrated the networks of US defence companies and think-tanks.

Also see: "China to report military spending to UN" at Peace and Freedom.

China will take steps to increase the transparency of its military operations, reporting expenditures to the United Nations and resuming updates about its arms sales, an official said Sunday.

Yeah right!

Also see:

Wen pledges to stop hackers who broke into German systems

Computer Hacking Plagues Department of Homeland Security:

WASHINGTON - Several government agencies within the Department of Homeland Security admit they are regularly victims of computer break-ins at home and overseas by hackers finding their way into the department's cyber network.More than 800 security incidents plagued the department over the past two years, including viruses, password-stealing programs and "Trojans" or hacker tunnels found on some workstations. Problems have cropped up at FEMA, the Transportation Security Agency, the Coast Guard and other agencies. ( Here via Here )

Comments

[Phil]

Hi Debbie,

One of the things that stageleft leaves out of his argument on how they know it was from China is that most of the hacks have been coming from China and not from other countries.

Also hackers as great as they are at hiding their IP's is that they quite often mess up in one little manor and that is leaving a well known signature in how they hack into a system, most hackers have their own style of hacking into systems it is like a trademark with them and that specific trademark is like a calling card to most system administrators.

One reason for this is they think that they are more Elite than any other hacker so they show off that Trademark in their style of hacking.

Sheez Stageleft you should do more reading up on the Unix Bluebook of anarchist how many of these hackers quite often get into systems. Another thing that you fail to realize that as good at hacking these hackers are, just who in the heck do you think runs and takes care of our own systems in the Government, why past hackers them selves, they know all the tricks that hackers use because they themselves have been into doing that before in the past.

[Debbie]

The Pentagon says it's the Chinese, so I'm assuming they have proof. I'll check out your article.

[stageleft]

How come no one seems to think about asking the question, how do they know it was the Chinese?

See: http://www.stageleft.info/2007/09/04/dey-wuz-0wn3d/#comment-123072

[Debbie]

Paul Champagne: Good one! And they don't make dog food that kills pets or toys with lead either.

[Paul Champagne]

Well if the Chinese say they don't condone computer hacking ... why wouldn't you believe them? And while we are on the subject, what are your feelings on Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy?