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.
You utilize a hardware firewall, software firewall, and if you run on the WIN9x kernel, unbind the TCPIP stack. See Gibson Research, and get rid of the WIN9x kernel. And never install the virus called AOL.
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.
They didn't get to the Top Secret networks....they ARE NOT connected to the internet.
IF they were, they would NOT be certified.
negative
It is... Cyber War!
I vaguely remember an old sci-fi movie where the two countrys at war did so with a computer. Depending on the strategy each side entered into the computer, the computer would determine the battle and notify each side how many casualities had taken place. Each side would then go out and kill that computer determined loss from amongst their own population.
This way there were no innocent's killed or property damage to either sides. Very surgical...
We'll have to check with Algore on this one...
Anyone who doesn't think we're doing this is very naive...
heshup... exactly what I was pondering to myself.
Sooner or later....inevitable. Now if we can only get the Islamfascists to go to war with the godless Chinese communists we could get rid of two enemies at one time?
Um, actually they were waiting to see the Secretary of State...
Sorry, I took a bit of literary license with that line. I should have specified that I was doing so. I stand corrected.
this bears repeating.....
How did you hear about it?
Good thing we have not made them mad at us!
I certainly like your thinking!
"keep your friends close, and your enemies, closer"
in order to attract Chinese hackers perhaps?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.