Chinese Hackers Launch Cyber Attack On Federal Labs
From ABC News:
A “sophisticated cyberattack” has been detected at Oak Ridge National Laboratory over the last several weeks, and authorities suspect the hackers are based in China.
The breach might have compromised the personal information of thousands of visitors to the lab, according to a communiqué sent to employees.
The intrusion is under active investigation by multiple agencies. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials tell ABC News they believe the attacks originated in China with Chinese entities probing U.S. systems.
Investigators have not been able to determine whether the attacks came from government or private entities in China.
The statement, from Laboratory Director Thom Mason, said the attack “appears to be part of a coordinated attempt to gain access to computer networks at numerous laboratories and other institutions across the country.”
Other federal labs, including Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have also been targeted in the scheme.
Livermore lab spokesman Stephen Wampler tells ABC News that the facilities employees received “approximately 1,000 spam-type e-mails with attachments” in October and November, but said the lab’s cybersecurity systems thwarted the attempted attack.
“As a result, there was no compromise of data at our laboratory,” he said.
A Los Alamos spokesman said the lab notified employees on Nov. 9 that a “malicious, sophisticated hacking event” affected a small number of computers on the facility’s unclassified network.
“A significant amount of data was removed,” the spokesman said. “The exact nature of the information is currently under computer forensic investigation.”
As for the Oak Ridge breach, the message went on to explain that “hackers potentially succeeded in gaining access to one of the laboratory’s nonclassified databases that contained personal information of visitors to the laboratory between 1990 and 2004.”
The personal information at risk includes names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of the visitors.
“You would be amazed at the number of attempts we experience every week, both coordinated and uncoordinated, to penetrate networks,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday, “whether it is government agencies or private sector agencies.”
Chertoff said that the department has been increasing its anti-hacking efforts over the past months. He said cyber security protection requires a multi-pronged approach, including building firewalls to prevent outside intrusion and increasing the funding of cyber security efforts, but that computer users also need to be mindful about opening suspicious emails.
As part of the hit on Oak Ridge, “thieves made approximately 1,100 attempts to steal data with a very sophisticated strategy that involved sending staff a total of seven ‘phishing’ e-mails, all of which at first glance appeared legitimate.”
From an ABC News article by Jack Date, Jason Ryan, Richard Sergayand Theresa Cook.
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Now, I’m just small stuff, but the McAfee security programs included with the cable internet bill I have, before they changed the program, allowed me to trace the attempted, I forget the term, but it’s like someone breaking into my PC. I would take the time to trace each one and was amazed how many attempts were from China, at least one-hundred a day. After about four months of tracing it got boring. As long as it was blocked, that’s all I need to know.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:10 pmIts been going on for awhile…They attacks last I heard were from the schools…
December 7th, 2007 at 5:23 pmWhy not set up some sacrificial computers, when hacked will feed them bull shit so their nukes would detonate under their rice burning ass’s? what the hell do I know——-
December 7th, 2007 at 6:07 pmMake no mistake, penetration attempts from China are sanctioned 100% by the govt. They are looking at our weaknesses and our strengths to develop their own methods of hardening their systems.
What is really bad is how much scientific and engineering data they garner from corporate America. Why bother sending agents for industrial espionage when you can do it from half way around the world? Corporate America is being raped by the Chinese.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:37 pmJohn Cunningham I have to agree with you. My ISP provides a norton suite, but I also use PeerGaurdian wich allows me to veiw blocked hits. The increase from China in the last year is incredible, and alarming.
December 7th, 2007 at 9:32 pmNothing new here. Titan Rain has been doing this for quite sometine. Setting up a Honeypot is a good idea. But the govies need far more expertise on the job than they have.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:38 amEven with multiple security layers the Chicoms are still able to penetrate our defenses. It would be better to make government nets an internal network with no outside connection to them. Access would be allowed from inside the net only.