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CIA Warns of Chinese Plans for Cyber-Attacks on U.S.
LA Times ^ | 4/25/02 | ERIC LICHTBLAU

Posted on 04/25/2002 5:47:53 AM PDT by truthandlife

Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:22 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

U.S. intelligence officials believe the Chinese military is working to launch wide-scale cyber-attacks on American and Taiwanese computer networks, including Internet-linked military systems considered vulnerable to sabotage, according to a classified CIA report.

Moreover, U.S. authorities are bracing for a possible wave of hacking attacks by Chinese students against the United States in coming weeks, according to the analysis. The confidential alert, which was reviewed by The Times, was sent to intelligence officials a week ago.


(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: china; taiwan; us; war
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Click on source link for more of the stories (LA Times)
1 posted on 04/25/2002 5:47:53 AM PDT by truthandlife
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To: truthandlife
Oh plz Chinese put porn all over the the washington post, and new york and la slimes webpages it will be funny.
2 posted on 04/25/2002 5:53:52 AM PDT by weikel
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To: truthandlife
Impossible. How could China possibly get such computer technology... ... ...???
3 posted on 04/25/2002 5:59:00 AM PDT by Savage Beast
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To: weikel
It would elevate the quality of their "journalism".
4 posted on 04/25/2002 6:01:22 AM PDT by Savage Beast
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To: truthandlife
The network came under attack from Chinese hackers right after that incident where they rammed our military aircraft over international waters. The hackers in this country cleaned their chinese clocks instead. I heard them joking about it on some comp. tech. chat sites.
5 posted on 04/25/2002 6:11:37 AM PDT by KDD
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To: truthandlife
I administer a Government LAN, and I don't know if the government of China is behind all hacking attempts eminating from their country, but we sure get a lot of attempts from China, however, Eastern Europe, and surprisingly, Japan are also larger problems. A properly administered network, has no major, lasting problems, with whatever hacking is performed. Hacking is an annoyance, which causes temporary interruptions, but really has no long term implications as far as the operation of the network is concerned. Systems, in which a temporary interruption can be dangerous or fatal, take the appropriate safeguards, and these hacking attempts, in the end, simply add costs to administering a network. Where problems arise, is when network administrators are not properly trained in "disaster recovery", and these "temporary' disruptions end up being more than just annoyances, again, imposing greater costs on the host of the network. The end result, is that hacking costs money, to businesses and governments, and in the end, it is consumers, who have to pay higher taxes to protect government LANS, and higher product costs to protect corporate LANS. On the plus side, what a make-work project. Think of how many "good" jobs are created as a result of all of this hacking.
6 posted on 04/25/2002 7:28:26 AM PDT by krogers58
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To: truthandlife
BUMP
7 posted on 04/25/2002 7:31:39 AM PDT by TLBSHOW
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To: truthandlife
Moreover, U.S. authorities are bracing for a possible wave of hacking attacks by Chinese students against the United States in coming weeks...

It seems to me that the history of foreign students in this country is full of acts of spying and sabotage of our society of one sort or another. Which leads to a logical question: Why do we allow so many foreign students from hostile or unfriendly nations in this country?

I am sure that President Bush has the authority to deport each and every Chinese national who is here on a student visa - now would be a good time to exercise that authority. Additionally, now would be a good time for all Americans who have not boycotted Red Chinese goods to do so.

8 posted on 04/25/2002 7:47:50 AM PDT by Ancesthntr
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To: krogers58; truthandlife; Savage Beast; weikel; KDD
A cyber-attack from the Chinese military is a very real possiblity. When (not if) they do launch an electronic attack, it won't be limited to the internet-connected government systems. Their likely first target will be our satellites, both commercial and military. This would not be as hard as most people believe that it would be. A type of electro-magnetic weapon called a flux-compression generator could take out almost every satellite obove the hemisphere in which it is set off. A flux compression generator can be built for under $1000 each and placed on an ICBM. When it is in the desired position, say, a few hundred miles over Nebraska, the weapon charges a massive induction coil to a high potential. A specially timed conventional explosive, covering the length of this coil, is detonated starting at one end and traveling to the opsosite end. This explosion compresses the coil and the huge electromagnetic field within it. Depending on size and power, this bomb would generate an extremely intense electromagnetic burst which theoretically would destroy every simiconductor within a line of site. Depending on the altitude, this energy could also destroy every piece of electronic equipment on the ground for hundreds of miles in every direction. Imagine if suddenly large parts of the nation's electric power distribution grid are destroyed as well as almost every computer, telephone, telephone switch, router, radio television, banking network, cash register, automobile ignition control system, generator, transmitter and receiver over 1/3 to 1/2 of the country.

This isn't something that can only happen in science fiction. It's a very real possibility. Sure, we have an impressive and powerful military, but take out our surveillance, communication and GPS satellites, our Navy and Air Force would be essentially de-fanged. To rebuild this infrastructure would take about 20 years due to the economic chaos and depression that this attack would cause. Imagine if just two of these weapons were used, one over Wall Street and the other over Silicon Vally.

9 posted on 04/25/2002 8:43:52 AM PDT by Orangedog
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To: Orangedog
the unabomber wet dream.
10 posted on 04/25/2002 9:03:02 AM PDT by CJ Wolf
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To: Ancesthntr
"Why do we allow so many foreign students from hostile or unfriendly nations in this country?"

Because we are stupid.
11 posted on 04/25/2002 9:35:27 AM PDT by conserve-it
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To: Orangedog
For the Chens to figure it out, we would have to build it first. Then they would have to have a willing person to provide them with the design (Clinton-Gore). I don't think they can do much with the technology. Those who can, generally don't go bragging that they can.
12 posted on 04/25/2002 9:52:58 AM PDT by RasterMaster
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To: truthandlife
U.S. intelligence officials believe the Chinese military is working to launch wide-scale cyber-attacks on American and Taiwanese computer networks

Gee. We don't anyone building and using intrusive attack tools on behalf of the USG, do we?

Ahem.

13 posted on 04/25/2002 10:05:05 AM PDT by angkor
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To: RasterMaster
The initial R&D was done back in the 1950's and 60's. It also doesn't help when prints an article detailing the major componants and their function. Actually, some companies and police departments have worked to develope much smaller devices that operate along the same lines to destroy the electronics in a cars ignition system during high speed car chases. I wish I had one to deal with the damned ice cream truck that creeps though my neighborhood playing that annoying music as loud as it can over a PA system. It could also do wonders for the punks with their bass-thumping car stereos at all hours of the day and night!
14 posted on 04/25/2002 10:23:52 AM PDT by Orangedog
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To: angkor
Gee. We don't anyone building and using intrusive attack tools on behalf of the USG, do we?

Either government would welcome more privacy of it's citizens in the same manner that most of us welcome a turd in a swimming pool.

15 posted on 04/25/2002 10:28:37 AM PDT by Orangedog
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To: Orangedog
lol, where is the evidence this weapon would work in space? and the testing on this over a several mile geographic area is missing also. while the theory is plausible, the actual data (proof) isn't there, especially in space.
16 posted on 04/25/2002 10:30:00 AM PDT by veryconernedamerican
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To: krogers58
����s an annoyance, which causes temporary interruptions, but really has no long term implications as far as the operation of the network is concerned.

I don't think will remain true. Right now, for instance, Nimda has left a reservoir of machines that have been compromised in such a way that anybody can go in and execute commands with administrative privileges. And these machines announce their IP addresses constantly via Nimda's attempts to spread to other web sites, so anybody can find them if they want to. (Most of these machines probably belong to unsophisticated cable modem users who don't even know that they're running IIS, but attacks of various sorts could be staged from this group of machines. In addition, some of the machines may actually be of greater importance -- government or corporate machines, for instance.)

Most people running IIS have installed the patch which closes the hole Nimda used, and most infected machines have been cleaned up, so the reservoir of compromised machines is much smaller than it was in October or November. But it could easily happen again in a similar fashion, and somebody could take advantage of the security breaches this time.

The Internet is such an essential part of our communications infrastructure now that one can easily imagine a massive attack on the Internet as being one prong of a military or terrorist action.

17 posted on 04/25/2002 10:34:46 AM PDT by Mitchell
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To: Mitchell
The beginning of my post #17 was supposed to be a quote from the post I was responding to: Hacking is an annoyance, which causes temporary interruptions, but really has no long term implications as far as the operation of the network is concerned.

Apparently it got corrupted when I posted.

18 posted on 04/25/2002 10:37:54 AM PDT by Mitchell
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To: Orangedog
You find one to disable the roller-skate cars (with speakers which cost more than the car brand new) we could use a few here. Too many gang member "wanna-be's" with ignorant parents.
19 posted on 04/25/2002 10:44:47 AM PDT by RasterMaster
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To: Orangedog
Just what I was thinking. They wouldn't coordinate a cyberattack without it being the prelude to an EMP, then a stratigic attack on our economy and possibly military
20 posted on 04/25/2002 10:54:21 AM PDT by Dead Dog
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