Alert to China’s cyber attacks
6/10/14
In recent years, China has been
accused of launching cyber attacks to foreign companies, firms and even
government agencies. Taiwan
has become the latest to accuse China
of launching cyberattacks, following complaints from Canada
and the United States.
Agence France-Presse (via Defense News)
reports that Simon Chang, Taiwan’s science and technology minister, told an
interviewer that “Chinese cyberwar units have been engaging with Taiwan units
almost every day, with some severe attacks every few months.”
U.S. FBI chief James Comey says China is at the
top of the list of countries waging cyber warfare against American industry,
with damages measured in the billions of dollars per year. Comey told CBS
television's 60 Minutes Sunday that China’s efforts are extremely
aggressive and widespread in stealing secrets benefitting its own business and
industry.
The U.S. indicted
five Chinese military experts for cybertheft in May it accuses of stealing
business secrets from American companies. Obama administration officials say
the criminal indictments - the first of their kind against foreign
government officials - are meant to send a message that the U.S. wants China to stop stealing cyber
secrets.
As tensions flare
in the East Sea, a leading Vietnamese Internet security
company reported Monday that 220 local websites were apparently attacked by
Chinese hackers.
Six of the victims
bore government domains (.gov) and were hacked between May 5 and 11, Ngo Tuan
Anh, vice chairman in charge of Internet security at the Hanoi-based BKAV,
said. Vietnamese government and education websites were among the nearly 750
victims of a series of Chinese cyber-attacks launched in late August. A post
that went up Friday on SecurityDaily --a forum on the Vietnam Information
Security Association's security.net-- said the attacks began on August 28
when hackers took control and changed the interfaces of 289 websites. Another
84 websites were hacked on September 2 and a further 373 on September 4, most
of which belonged to businesses. The list of victims, which included eight
government and 40 school websites, was posted on the hackers’ site: 1937cn.net.
Attackers also left a signature that
reads “By: China Hacked,” messages implying that they are from China, and images related to Vietnam’s sovereignty over the East Vietnam
Sea, which China is violating, at the bottom
of the sites.
This has caused people to link these
attacks to the standoff in the sea, where China
is illegally operating drilling rig Haiyang 981 within Vietnam’s
exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
It is noted that
Chinese hackers invading into other countries' government websites were not
uncommon, especially if those countries were in some kind of dispute with China. For
example, in 2010 August, the Chinese flag appeared on the Philippine's
government website asking for an apology after Chinese tourist hostages were
killed in Manila.
In October of the same year, the government website of Japan's Shimane Prefecture
was also hacked, with Chinese characters insulting Japan.
The nature of cyberwarfare in the People's Republic of China
is difficult to assess. Government officials in India
and the United States have
traced various attacks on corporate and infrastructure
computer systems in their countries to computers in the People's Republic of China. However,
"It is nearly impossible to know whether or not an attack is
government-sponsored because of the difficulty in tracking true identities in
cyberspace.". China
has steadfastly denied being behind any hacking activities. In rejecting what
it calls “baseless” and “groundless accusations,” China
points to the fact that it is a major victim of cyberattacks and has accused
the United States of engaging in cyberwarfare against it,
which the US
government denies.
In the worst
scenario, when Chinese hackers run a large-scale attack on Vietnam’s
websites, the country’s Internet system may fail to withstand if there are no
effective defensive solutions, Nguyen Hong Phuc, an Internet security expert,
warned.
“China
has more people working in Internet security than Vietnam,” admitted Vo Do Thang,
director of Athena Internet security center. “If they deliberately carry out
cyber attacks against us, the damage will be huge.”
So, we should be aware of any Chinese technology and
software for our safety and privacy on the Internet./.
All comments [ 10 ]
Yeah, everything's from China need to be double-checked before using.
The information targeted could potentially be used to benefit China's defense industry, high-technology industries, policymakers' interest in leadership on foreign issues, and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.
Apparently, these China's cyber attacks to Vietnamese websites are linked to the standoff in the sea, where China is illegally and aggressively enhancing their territorial claims.
Even best if we say no to Chinese goods, especially technological products.
It said cyber warfare could support China's military operations in three areas: collecting intelligence data, constraining or slowing down an adversary's actions, and acting as a "force multiplier when coupled with kinetic attacks.
In rejecting what it calls “baseless” and “groundless accusations,” China points to the fact that it is a major victim of cyberattacks, so hilarious!
China has long denied US hacking allegations, but its response to the current indictments has been unusually strong.
China has accused the U.S. of hypocrisy after a US court pressed cyber warfare charges
Government should have measure to control and prevent escalating imports of Chinese technological products.
It is nearly impossible to know whether or not an attack is government-sponsored because of the difficulty in tracking true identities in cyberspace.
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