Monday, February 22, 2010

China. Hackers. Cyberattack. Again.

Another variation on a theme, in the news:
"U.S. Pinpoints Coder Behind Google Attack"
Reuters, via Threat Level, Wired (February 22, 2010)

"U.S. government analysts believe a Chinese man with government links wrote the key part of a spyware program used in hacker attacks on Google last year, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

"The man, a security consultant in his 30s, posted sections of the program to a hacking forum where he described it as something he was 'working on,' the paper said, quoting an unidentified researcher working for the U.S. government.

"The spyware creator works as a freelancer and did not launch the attack, but Chinese officials had 'special access' to his programing, the report said.

" 'If he wants to do the research he's good at, he has to toe the line now and again,' the paper quoted the unnamed U.S. government researcher saying...."

"...The allegations over the spyware are the latest episode in a dispute that has pitted Google and the United States against China, with its wall of Internet controls and legions of hackers.

"In January, the giant internet search engine company, Google, threatened to pull back from China and shut its Google.cn Chinese-language portal over complaints of censorship and sophisticated hacking from within China.

"Washington has backed those criticisms and urged Beijing to investigate hacking complaints thoroughly and transparently. Beijing has said it opposes hacking.

"The Financial Times report also quoted unnamed sources backing a New York Times report that analysts had traced the online attacks to two Chinese educational institutions, the prestigious Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang vocational school...."
On the 'up' side, it seems to me that China's unwillingness to play well with others is getting into the news a little more often now, than a few years ago. ("White House Computers Hacked, Probably by China: News That's Not Fit to Print? (November 9, 2008))

Other related posts:And click "China" in this blog's label cloud.

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Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.