Chinese Military Hacked Into Pentagon

[Nomad559]

Source: FT.Com

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network earlier this year in the most successful cyber attack ever on the US defence department, according to US officials.

The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, the defence secretary, in June, but refused to say who it believed had been behind the incursion.

Current and former officials have now told the Financial Times that an internal investigation into the attack has revealed it came from the Peoples’ 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.


Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9dba9ba2-5a3b-11dc-9bcd-0000779fd2ac.html

[bamacrat]

1. Well isn't that special.

We need to get better firewalls. With all the money going to the Pentagon lately you would think they could upgrade and get MaCafee.

[kenny blankenship]

7. It's probably a quite bit more subtle than that

the firewall software itself (whatever it was) could be the very place they found a hole to exploit. Or maybe they found a way to attack the email server software, which, in order to function, must accept incoming connections, even if those are filtered by IP.

Mickeymouse security suites will never make the Pentagon safe from infiltration from interested foreign powers.

[Virginia Dare]

28. Precisely, this is WAR...

the Chinese have been spending billions on cyber-warfare for many years. Meanwhile, here we sit with our thumbs up our butts, searching little old ladies in airports.

[2Design]

34. since they make all the parts and probably most of the software - how

can anyone be surprized

[Up2Late]

46. I seriously doubt it's even that complicated, they probably have several old DOS computers...

...and a bunch still running Windows3.1 and Windows95 there.

I mean, think about this, the FBI is just now replacing it's Card file system.

[barbtries]

8. profiteers

pocketing all the cash. it just gets worse by the hour anymore

[MetaTrope]

23. Could it have been the Peoples' Liberation Army's business partner

You know, the Bush administration's Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao?

[and-justice-for-all]

33. I guess McCafee is not in the budget. nt

[hootinholler]

37. MacAfee!

:rofl:

Good one!

:cry:

-Hoot

[Pris-LA]

2. And they left a little message on the way out...

Hacked by Chinese!

[stillcool]

3. Richard Lawless...

...great name for a Pentagon official..

The Pentagon took down the network for more than a week while the attacks continued, and is to conduct a comprehensive diagnosis. “These are multiple wake-up calls stirring us to levels of more aggressive vigilance,” said Richard Lawless, the Pentagon’s top Asia official at the time of the attacks.

[seafan]

4. Don't miss this:

Chinese military hacked into Pentagon

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Richard McGregor in Beijing
September 3 2007

.....

“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 added that the PLA has also penetrated the networks of US defence companies and think-tanks.

Hackers from multiple locations in China spent several months probing the Pentagon system before they finally overcame its defences, according to people familiar with the matter. The Pentagon took the network down for more than a week to protect it while the attacks continued, and to conduct a comprehensive diagnosis.

“These are multiple wake up calls stirring us to levels of more aggressive vigilance,” said Richard Lawless, the Pentagon’s top Asia official at the time of the attacks.

The Pentagon is still investigating how much data was downloaded, but one person with knowledge of the attack said most of the information was probably “unclassified”. He said the event had forced officials to reconsider the kind of information they send over unsecured emails systems.

John Hamre, a Clinton-era deputy defence secretary involved with cyber security, said while he had no knowledge of the June attack, criminal groups sometimes mask cyber attacks to make it appear they came from government computers in a particular country.

Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the White House recently created a team of experts to consider whether the administration needs to restrict the use of Blackberries because of concerns about cyber espionage.

Oh, do we suppose he's talking about the GOP/RNC/Rove Blackberry servers that are in violation of the Presidential Records Act?

Just what we've been screaming about since the existence of these shadow RNC servers was exposed earlier this year...


This administration needs to be impeached, convicted and removed from all power NOW, including all extremist hacks and blind loyalists in all branches.

[drm604]

21. Think tanks? Email?

A lot of "think tanks" are right-wing fronts. Sounds like the Chinese understand what's been going on in this country and who's really in charge of things.

[Virginia Dare]

29. Bingo...n/t

[drm604]

40. Yes

While the Republicans have been busy trying to undermine our electoral and court systems and damaging our military the Chinese have been busy trying to undermine the whole country. :mad:

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. No kidding. If information on the RNC servers is so sensitive to national security...

... that it's subject to executive privilege, it has no friggin business being on an insecure system.

[htuttle]

31. If Congress can't get the Bush admin documents they want via a subpoena...

...maybe they could just purchase copies of them from China.

:shrug:

[drm604]

41. Why not.

We import everything else from there.

[mallard]

51. Re: "attacks that disable our system"

Why do I think this whole story is complete bullshit?

Maybe we should here what the PLA has to say about its own problems with cyber invasion. It probably leads back to some second-rate university campus in Taiwan or such.

Let's here from China first and accuse later!

[Thickasabrick]

5. LOL...good - maybe they can do something to stop the bombing of Iran

[sarcasmo]

6. China and Russian doing joint maneuvers. China making a deal with Iran

This is a planned trial run, if our idiot Dictator attacks Iran we are finished.

[aquart]

14. Not yet.

Iran can defend itself nicely against our beaten, exhausted, ill-equipped army. They're fresh and they will be pissed off. China need not do anything militarily except ensure that Iran is well-armed.

Then wait till we are broken financially, militarily, and socially (because climate change will be murdering us at home).

China will win without firing a shot. Just by waiting. Just by walking in afterwards as the honest broker we could have been if we'd waited for Saddam to die naturally.

[LibertyorDeath]

18. "China will win without firing a shot. Just by waiting"

100% correct and
the waiting will soon be over...

[Doctor_J]

9. Maybe they should spend less time listening to the phone calls of

innocent citizens and more time worrying about real threats. Incompetence at every level of the Rove administration.

[coco77]

27. While Bush is spending all of our resources in Iraq...

and spying on us others are taking advantage of all of the weakness and laughing at this country for continuing to listen to the Dummy.

[Zorra]

10. That's what happens when you have Bu*h loyalists at every position

in government service.

They are all a bunch of incompetent losers that have absolutely no imagination. It's damn near to a miracle that we still have a country after 6+ years of Bu*hocracy.

[skids]

11. Let me guess, Gates was browsing where he shouldn't have? n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Anyone surprised?

The State Dept, the Pentagon, the CIA and the FBI are so busy creating a psy-ops operation against the American people, where do they find the time to defend against a hack job from a foreign country?

[OhioChick]

13. That's Okay.....

Because we do "need" all those cheap-ass poisonous toys and electronics from there. :sarcasm:

[jeff30997]

15. So what?

Everybody knows that Cuba is a far more dangerous enemy.:sarcasm:

[LiberalFighter]

16. This is an act of war. Bomb China. Let's take their WMD away

After they surrender force them to accept a democratic government.

[valerief]

17. Well, it's their Pentagon now. They bought it. nt

[unc70]

19. This has happened before - Naval War College, State Department

Naval War College was taken down last fall (Oct?). State Department was mostly taken down last year when North Korea was saber rattling and testing rockets. I seem to remember that State's failure was attributed to an MS Word email attachment. There are other attacks using various MS and Adobe products. Then there are things like cameras, phones, and music devices. Do you think before attaching them to your system? Have you disabled wireless connections to everything?

Unfortunately, we are rapidly approaching the point where we really cannot "trust" most of the underlying hardware itself, because it is not made in secure chip foundries. If you can't ensure complete chain of custody on the hardware and software, you don't have a secure system. We are already seeing pre-infected components. Not just gov/military, but all sorts of infrastructure from power transmission to medical labs and patient monitoring equipment are at risk.

We see attacks all the time that scare the Hell out of us, and I'm sure we see only a tiny fraction of what is out there.

[EVDebs]

36. Is Bill Gate's MS system being exploited ?

I've heard (from FromTheWilderness for what it's worth) that using Macintosh operating system is something that the DoD does extensively.

[BearSquirrel2]

44. It's all about BIOS

The prospect of getting BIOS with backdoors from China is chilling. This is prime evidence on why we must make our own high technology items. We are currently dependent on a stream of supercargo ships from SE Asia to supply the things we take for granted.

WTO is behind this. The international CEOs are behind this. It is a concerted effort to recuce the power of the nation state in favor of the corporation where citizens have no vote.

[thunder rising]

45. New Rule: you can't hand me tin foil when I say the PC's are bugged by

NSA via MS. But then I suppose it's much easier to believe the Chinese could ACTUALLY DO IT!

[ThoughtCriminal]

20. Sopmebody should remind bush cronnies

that your mistress' phone number is NOT a good password.

[percussivemadness]

22. actually the British guy who hacked 53 US Military and Nasa computers

Gary McKinnon, whilst looking for proof of UFO`s - http://www.eyepod.org/McKinnon.html ,stated that all of the passwords were set to XP`s administrator default setting, which is why he found it so easy to get in.

As for the Chinese hacking the Pentagon, I am sure the US has equally competant hackers working for them.

Its just tit for tat IMHO.

Peace

[SayWhatYo]

25. US hackers suck...

They are all script kiddies...


*disconnects network and hides* teehee teehee

[Virginia Dare]

30. No, the Chinese are way ahead of us as far as this game goes..

the Pentagon is busy diddling back in the 1980's.

[movonne]

26. Maybe we should bomb them instead of Iran....

[hobbit709]

32. And if they're admitting this much

then it makes you wonder what they're NOT telling.

[EVDebs]

35. System software 'architecture' outsourced to Ptech, a Saudi firm

with a little history,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2503075

White House, DoD, DoJ, FAA, you name it, Ptech, now GoAgile is there.

Ptech's software is UML unified modeling language.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptech

[Joanne98]

38. HAHAHAHA!!!

[liberaltrucker]

39. "We'll hang the capitalists with the rope they sell us"

Lenin paraphrased. Exactly what the Chinese are doing. They may appear capitalist, but
they're not and have their shit together big time. Care to learn Mandarin? You'll need
to.

[eridani]

42. We can't use regular bombs on them without their permission

Source Article: http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair10252003.html
Lettner Article: http://www.insightmag.com/news/2003/02/18/World/Missile.Technology.Sent.To.China-357426.shtml


Magnequench once made highly specialized rare earth magnets-crucial components in guidance systems of JDAM bombs and Cruise Missiles-here in the U.S., but they've outsourced our jobs and our national security to China.
In September 2003, Magnequench closed its last plant in Indiana, sending 450 workers into unemployment and moving its operation to China. The shift to China was no surprise. In 1995, the company was purchased by a front company for two Chinese companies, each of whose executives were in-laws of Chinese Premier Deng Xiaopeng. Magnequench’s CEO Archibald Cox Jr. had pledged in 1995 to invest heavily in the U.S plants, but in 1998 shut the first plant and moved operations to China. Cox is now managing the final phase of the transfer of operations to China.

In June 2000, Magnequench subsidiary GA Powders (originally a Department of Energy project) a1so moved all operations to China, where high-tech computer equipment from Magnequench’s old facility--equipment capable of facilitating uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons-had already been installed.

Pentagon advisor Dr. Peter Leitner has stated that Magnequench was a target of the Chinese because it could advance China's deve1opment of Cruise Missiles: "By controlling the access to the magnets and the raw materials they are composed of, U.S. industry…can be held hostage to PRC blackmai1 and extortion in an effort to manipulate our foreign and military policy."

Although Democratic Rep. Peter Visclosky and Democratic Senator Evan Bayh have asked President Bush to intervene on this issue which involves not only domestic job losses, but issues of national security, Bush has failed to take any action. And while the Pentagon acknowledges that Magnequench is the sole U.S. supplier of smart bomb magnets, it is apparently unconcerned that Magnequench is a U.S. company on paper only, with all of its operations in the hands of a Chinese monopoly.

While the Bush administration touts national security and jobs as issues it cares deeply about, the facts show otherwise. Not only do they turn a blind eye to job loss, but they've knowingly given the Chinese control of crucial weapons technology.

[troubleinwinter]

43. 'Hahaha, America'!

http://www.atomfilms.com/film/haha_america.jsp

[moggie]

47. Consider these two possible press releases the Pentagon could make

1. Somebody broke into an improperly secured computer. We have no idea who or where they were: the IP addresses are in China, but the bad guys often use previously hacked systems as cut-outs when launching attacks, and complaining to Chinese ISPs or law enforcement is a waste of time.
   
2. Our highly secure system was broken into by a crack team from those evil commies who poisoned your dog. We can't show you the evidence, but trust us, we're the government.
   

[lligrd]

48. So The Only Ones Who Don't Know Our Secrets

is we the people.

[calimary]

49. "...But, but, but, he's keeping us SAFE!"

Way to go, george. National security sure is your top priority there, guy. You're not the head of a government, after all. You're the head of a sieve.

[entanglement]

50. IIRC, the sensitive stuff is kept in a separate network completely isolated from 'regular' network