Lawmakers say Capitol computers hacked by Chinese

[LTR]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Multiple congressional computers have been hacked by people working from inside China, lawmakers said Wednesday, suggesting the Chinese were seeking lists of dissidents.


Two congressmen, both longtime critics of Beijing's record on human rights, said the compromised computers contained information about political dissidents from around the world. One of the lawmakers said he'd been discouraged from disclosing the computer attacks by other U.S. officials.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said four of his computers were compromised beginning in 2006. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said two of the computers at his global human rights subcommittee were attacked in December 2006 and March 2007.

Wolf said that following one of the attacks, a car with license plates belonging to Chinese officials went to the home of a dissident in Fairfax County, Va., outside Washington and photographed it.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080612/ap_on_go_co/china_hacking

[jimshoes]

1. How dare them photograph our dissidents!1!!11

What,, wait a min..u..t e. WTF? Where's Fatherland Homeland security?

[TheMadMonk]

6. Your dissidents no. Their dissidents yes.

And why the hell would HLS intervene. Either the dissidents pull their heads in and stop making a public nuisance of themselves (ie an embarrassment that has to be publicly addressed) or they complete their defection and make of themselves a useful asset. Either way, the cloak and dagger games can continue without the pesky public poking its unwelcome nose into the business.

[jimshoes]

7. That's my point

What are Chinese dissidents doing here in the US and what are the other Chinese doing here tracking them down. And it was rather tongue in cheek in the first place.

[stillcool]

2. Terrible...

I don't believe a word they say...

[madrchsod]

3. they are our friends

[trashcanistanista]

4. Earlier they reported that China was drilling for oil

off the coast of Florida. Since debunked. I have no doubt if the Chinese wanted a list of dissidents our govt. would gladly hand it over, no need to hack.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

5. I wonder if this had anything to do with Mitt Romney's buy out firm, Bain Capital selling 3Com...

...to a Chinese company.

HOMELAND INSECURITY
U.S. defense contractor in Chinese-purchase deal
3Com makes 'intrusion prevention' technology maker for Pentagon, Huawei founder is ex-PLA officer

Posted: September 29, 2007
8:00 pm Eastern

The joint acquisition, announced yesterday, of 3Com, the U.S. computer networking group, by Bain Capital, the U.S. private equity firm and China's Huawei Technologies, a telecoms equipment maker, is being called "really worrisome" by a former Pentagon cybersecurity expert.

The $2.2 billion cash deal gives Bain an over 80-percent stake in 3Com and Huawei – pronounced 'wah-way' – just under 20 percent.

While 3Com is small compared to other Silicon Valley technology giants, its focus on sensitive communications networks raises alarms if ownership is transferred to a foreign firm.
3Com's products include "intrusion prevention" technology that helps its customers, including the Pentagon, protect their computer networks from hackers, reported Financial Times. ........

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57902

[bean fidhleir]

15. Crap. I hope my modems and lan hub hold out.

3Com used to be a top-shelf maker, my first choice for comm hw.

[Blue_Tires]

8. (Rep. Frank R.) Wolf says Chinese hacked data

Source: The Richmond Times Dispatch

WASHINGTON -- Two congressional critics of human-rights abuses in China said yesterday their government computers were attacked by hackers from inside the communist country.

The computers contained personal information about Chinese dissidents.

The hackers "got everything," said Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, co-chairman of the bipartisan congressional Human Rights Caucus. "Everything on the computer was taken, everything."

Wolf said four computers in his House office were hacked in August 2006, starting with one used by an aide specializing in human-rights work.

FBI and House investigations showed the attack originated from an Internet provider address within China, Wolf said.

He said other members of Congress and government officials had discouraged him from speaking out.



Read more: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-12-0152.html

---

Anyone else think this story doesn't add up? Anyone else think the congressman or some aide was trying to download and open up that e-mail attachment of a nekkid Hannah Montana and got the hard drive wiped? I suck with computers, so I could be wrong, and his story is completely plausible...

[atreides1]

9. The story is plausible

But anyone in IT can also tell you that a hacker can leave a trail leading to anywhere they want!

[formercia]

14. I guess they didn't get the message

Don't put sensitive information on computers running Windows and connect them to the Internet.

Bad dog!

[FSogol]

10. I guess it means Rep Frank Wolf (R-naturally) and his staff can't be trusted

with Government secrets.

It does seem like some kind of cover up. They either lost/compromised something or he got caught with something really naughty on his computer. He should have checked with the White House first and blamed Iran. ;-)

[Blue_Tires]

11. UPDATE... that didn't take long: "China denies hacking into US computers "

BEIJING (AP) -- China denied accusations by two U.S. lawmakers that it hacked into congressional computers, saying Thursday that as a developing country it wasn't capable of sophisticated cybercrime.

"Is there any evidence? ... Do we have such advanced technology? Even I don't believe it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regularly scheduled news conference.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Wednesday that their office computers were hacked into by people working from China. Both lawmakers, longtime critics of China's human rights record, said the compromised computers had information regarding political dissidents.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_US_HACKING_VAOL-?SITE=VACHA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[nebenaube]

12. gee...

My servers suffer from hacking attacks every damn day. Brute force attempts to get into my FTP servers, brute force attempts to log in remotely via ssh; etc...

One can setup a gateway server with a old p3 or p4, two network cards and freebsd or linux for less than $100 and six hours or so of time. Then a mere six lines in the firewall rules file would have blocked all traffic from china. Frank Wolf can't be trusted to properly handle any kind of data other than his own. They should pull his security clearance and charge him for wasting the FBI's time.

[madmusic]

13. The government has a Schindler's list?

Wait, is they the purpose of stimulus package, to complete the list?