China denies Pentagon cyber-raid

[Sinosphere]

China has denied reports that its military hacked into the computer network of the US Department of Defense in Washington.

A foreign ministry official said the claims "reflected Cold War mentality".

The Financial Times quoted US officials as saying the Chinese army made the attack, which crashed part of a system for the defence secretary's office.

Last week China dismissed reports that its armed forces had infiltrated German government computer systems.

The reports come as US President George W Bush prepared to meet his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, at the Apec summit in Sydney, Australia.

'Wild accusations'

Chinese foreign ministry official Jiang Yu said Beijing "opposed and vigorously attacked" all attacks on the internet including hacking.

"Some people are making wild accusations against China ... These are totally groundless and also reflect a Cold War mentality," she said.

The Financial Times quoted a senior official as saying the Pentagon had pinpointed the origins of the attack and another as saying there was a "high level of confidence" that the People's Liberation Army was responsible.

The Pentagon has declined to say who it thinks is behind the attack, which took place in June.

Correspondents say the US and Chinese military regularly probe each other's networks, but the scale of disruption in the recent attack has raised concern.

The Pentagon shut down the network for more than a week while attacks continued, the newspaper said.

It quoted a source with knowledge of the attack as saying the data downloaded by the hacker was probably unclassified.

BBC News.

[aviator]

China Denies Hacking Pentagon Computers

No one would accept that they try their best to hack into computer systems of not just enemies but also friends sometimes. :) Surely US also tries to do so poking its nose where ever it can . Systems of famous organizations like Pentagon and DoD are favorite spots for any hacker to prove his skills and for enemy to steal any amount of information.

[snc128]

it is suspicious when a few Govt.s claim that they were attacked by China simultaneously.
I do not suppose claims done without rhyme or reason.one side is lying,or this is a part of a new strategy.who knows.
however,it is obvious that a new block is being established against China if China is right.

[Kiaar]

I think this is an almost poinltess subject to discuss to be honest. If China did it, they would deny it as much as possible. If China didn't do it, they'd deny it as much as possible.

Either way we don't know anything and the government won't be telling us for a long time.

[not-now]

lol looks like they got a taste of their own medicine U.S often spies on other countries i see this is as the same but just a different method of getting information.
Whoever did it must be even if it was wrong i gotta give em credit takes skill to pull that off.

[Behrooz Boonabi]

If they knew it was China, they wouldn't of questioned it. It would be interesting to know who did it, hmm

[Sinosphere]

If they knew it was China, they wouldn't of questioned it. It would be interesting to know who did it, hmm

I agree that it would be difficult to find out who actually commited the cyber attack. This is because the accusation of China is made by the media and not The Pentagon.

The Pentagon kept silence about it and only indicated there is such a cyber attack occured but didn't say who did it.

China's elite cyber hackers has already been identified by the US as the so-called "Titan Rain".

Not sure if they were the people who did it, but I am not suprised if they did because "Titan Rain" are capable of doing it.

[Behrooz Boonabi]

I agree that it would be difficult to find out who actually commited the cyber attack. This is because the accusation of China is made by the media and not The Pentagon.

The Pentagon kept silence about it and only indicated there is such a cyber attack occured but didn't say who did it.

China's elite cyber hackers has already been identified by the US as the so-called "Titan Rain".

Not sure if they were the people who did it, but I am not suprised if they did because "Titan Rain" are capable of doing it.

Sure, probably many other groups as well. The moral of the story is don't connect computers with sensitive data to a network that connects to the internet.

[Sinosphere]

Sure, probably many other groups as well. The moral of the story is don't connect computers with sensitive data to a network that connects to the internet.

I agree, but I think it would be difficult as The Pentagon is linked to other intelligence and government agencies.

The intelligence agencies would get information from their operatives worldwide, so not connecting to the Internet would be near to impossible for them.

[daddy]

tell me more about this "titan rain" my friend, who are they? what stunts did they pull off?
and i agree yankees can't help but ocnnect their pentagon and other terror sponsoring masterminding genocidal maniacal zionistic imperialistic murderous activities from the hub of all their terror spawning centres i.e. the pentagon. with other terrorist planning sites like their military bases and cia and spy agencies.

[Sinosphere]

tell me more about this "titan rain" my friend, who are they? what stunts did they pull off?


Little is known about Titan Rain.

Firstly, "Titan Rain" is not the confirmed name for Chinese elite hackers in cyber warfare. It is a designation by the US, in other words it is simply one sided.

Secondly, Titan Rain probably does not exist in China or not going by that name, maybe under another name if it does exist. However, such a elite hacker group exists as an arm for China's cyber warfare department.

Titan Rain is most likely an elite anti-hacking group for China to counter hacking activities by other nations into China like the US.

Sino-US hacking activities of each other is a reality, that is true.

The key thing is who can do it better out of the two.

I personally don't support hacking, but in politics, cyber espionage is part of the game.

In regards to the stunts they have pulled of, I am not sure either, as news of China's hacking activities are not highlighted much. Most of the news about it are from the US side.

Here is a extract from the wikipedia website.

I am not sure about the reliability of wikipedia on this matter, but it is worth the read and taking a note.

"In early December of 2005 the director of the SANS Institute, a security institute in the U.S., said that the attacks were most likely the result of Chinese military hackers attempting to gather information on U.S. systems.

Titan Rain hackers gained access to many U.S. computer networks, including those at Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories, Redstone Arsenal, and NASA."

This is reported by the US SANS Institute, so I presume the information is reliable.