The Dark Visitor

Xinhua has just released the full English text of China’s White Paper on National Defense 2010.  Why do I get so excited when this thing gets published?

According to the Sydney Morning Hearld: 

“The parliamentary computers of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and at least two other senior ministers are suspected of being hacked.  Ms Gillard’s parliamentary computer, along with those of several cabinet ministers including Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith were believed to have been compromised, News Ltd newspapers report.

Thousands of emails are believed to have been accessed in the cyber attacks. Four Australian government sources confirmed with the newspapers they had been told Chinese intelligence agencies were part of a list of suspected hackers.”

Read more.

According to the Korea Times:

“One of the victims is itemBay, the nation’s largest trading site for online games. Last October, Seoul police concluded that hackers located in China’s Jilin Province waged attacks on the firm’s website for two years from 2008 at the request of its Korean rival. The case is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many companies that have refused to report their cases to the police or refer them to the media, fearing that revelations could have a negative effect on their business.”

Read more: South Korean firms paying Chinese hackers

Fictional account of cyberwarfare between the US and China in the year 2020 written by:

Dr. Christopher Bronk is the Baker Institute fellow in information and technology policy and a lecturer in computer science at Rice University; served as a career diplomat with the US State Department; doctorate from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University; and studied international relations at Oxford University.

Read:  Dr. Bronk’s paper Blown to Bits published by Stragetic Quarterly

Think the Google vs. China gmail debate made the top 10 list in China?  Nope, according to Baidu’s weekly focus, the aftermath of the “Salt Panic”  was on everyone’s mind.  This was due to the mistaken belief that the iodine content in salt could help with the effects of radiation poisoning.  Prior to that, Chinese citizens had been searching online to purchase salt.  Chinese hackers monitor popular web searches and left a slew of malicious web pages to help balance the supply and demand ratio.

People’s Daily reports that 4,635 Chinese government websites were hacked in 2010, a jump of 68 percent from 2008.  That has to be close to all of them, right?         

Quick Translation:

Rising’s report on China’s 2010 Corporate Security Threats  indicates that government, military, and academic research institutes were significant targets for hackers. 

The report further shows that among all hacker attacks, there were a significantly higher number carried out on institutions dealing with state secrets and financial security such as:  national agencies, classified units (dealing with classified/confidential  information), research institutions, and financial organizations.  Some units dealing with classified information suffered nearly a thousand different attacks a month.

Hackers often used the personal computers, cell phones, and thumb drives of individuals working in classified units as portals for attack.  For example, the personal computers of academic researchers involved in military projects were often the targets of attack.  Attackers attempted to use thumb drives, moveable hard disks, and cell phones as springboards for attacks on classified networks.  If successful, the leak of classified information could have grave consequences. 

According to Rising’s estimates, in 2010 alone, there were in excess of 10 million attacks on classified networks.  Of those, 90% of the attacking IPs came from abroad with the US, Japan, and South Korea ranking as the three highest ranking sources of attack.

Rising’s report on China’s 2010 Corporate Security Threats indicates that government, military, and academic research institutes were significant targets for hackers. 

The report further showed that among all hacker attacks, there was a significantly higher number carried out on institutions dealing with state secrets and financial security such as:  national agencies, classified units (dealing with classified/confidential  information), research institutions, and financial organizations.  Some units dealing with classified information suffered nearly a thousand different attacks a month.

Hackers often used the personal computers, cell phones, and thumb drives of individuals working in classified units as portals for attack.  For example, the personal computers of academic researchers involved in military projects were often the targets of attack.  Attackers attempted to use thumb drives, moveable hard disks, and cell phones as springboards for attacks on classified networks.  If successful, the leak of classified information could have grave consequences. 

According to Rising’s estimates, in 2010 alone, there were in excess of 10 million attacks on classified networks.  Of those, 90% of the attacking IPs came from abroad with the US, Japan, and South Korea ranking as the three highest ranking sources of attack.

IP source attacks on China’s classified networks:

US 21%

Japan 17%

South Korea 17%

Singapore 11%

India 8%

Europe 6%

Hong Kong/Taiwan and others 20%

Fine, shut down the NYC power grid but leave my phone alone.  My addiction for downloading every app available has come back to haunt me:

From TechEye:

From Bloomberg:

“China said computer hacking attacks against websites of the nation’s government agencies jumped 68 percent last year, and called on local regulators to follow the U.S. and the European Union in stepping up Internet policing.

More than 4,600 Chinese government websites had their content modified by hackers in 2010, according to a report by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China yesterday. Stricter penalties should be imposed against offenders to deter cyber attacks, according to the center, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.”

Read more…

From PCWorld:

The large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that hit the WordPress.com blog publishing platform last week originated from China, according to the founder of the site.

A DDOS attack involves harnessing hundreds or thousands of computers to simultaneously bombard a web site with data so it becomes overwhelmed. The computers in such attacks have typically been infected with malware so they can be used without the consent and awareness of their owners.

The attacks, which brought slowdowns to the WordPress.com site, were severe enough to interfere with the company’s three data centers in Chicago, San Antonio and Dallas. The site has since returned to normal as of Monday.

Read more…