Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Security
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Congressmen accuse China of hacking their computers

Dissident information may have been compromised

June 12, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Active Comments
Alex says: Stop whining about China and do something about it. If China is beating us up, its because it can. Whining...
Anonymous says: Will these Congressman do anything about treating the hacking as the Sabotage or Espionage that it is? I'm not holding...


IDG News Service - Two congressmen on Wednesday accused China of hacking their office computers, possibly compromising information on Chinese dissidents, the legislators and news reports said.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, "in August 2006, four of the computers in my personal office were compromised by an outside source. This source first hacked into the computer of my foreign policy and human rights staff person, then the computers of my chief of staff, my legislative director and my judiciary staff person. On these computers was information about all of the casework I have done on behalf of political dissidents and human rights activists around the world.

"In subsequent meetings with House Information Resources and FBI officials, it was revealed that the outside sources responsible for this attack came from within the People's Republic of China. These cyberattacks permitted the source to probe our computers to evaluate our systems' defenses and to view and copy information. My suspicion is that I was targeted by Chinese sources because of my long history of speaking out about China's abysmal human rights record," Wolf continued, according to a transcript on his Web site.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing's public affairs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson's phone at China's Foreign Ministry in Beijing rang unanswered.

Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) and the House Foreign Affairs Committee also had their computers targeted during the same time, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Information-security concerns relating to China continue to rise. In late May, the contents of a U.S. government laptop may have been copied during a visit to China by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, a matter which is still under investigation.

In early May, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) alleged that the Chinese government had asked major hotel chains to censor their Internet traffic during the 2008 Olympic Games, which will be held in Beijing on August 8 to 24. Brownback did not name the hotels involved, but he condemned China's human rights record.

Security worries and politics also played a role in the unsuccessful purchase of 3Com Corp. by a group that included Bain Capital Partners LLC and China-based Huawei Technologies Co., with the latter taking 16.5% of the company. However, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, refused to approve the deal, mostly due to national security concerns over 3Com products used by the U.S. Department of Defense and the access that Huawei would then have to those products' specifications.


Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Jump to comments

congressman

Additional Resources

Microsoft
Here are some of the key reasons why you would want to run Unified Access Gateway with DirectAccess.
Microsoft
Review how one energy firm tightened protection and simplified IT work using business-ready security solutions.
Sybase
In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

What People Are Saying

White Papers & Webcasts

Gene Kim's Practical Steps to Achieve and Maintain NERC Compliance
Learn seven steps operators can take to meet IT configuration requirements set forth in the NERC-CIP standards.  

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.


IT Jobs