U.S. websites, e-mail servers
seen as targets for Chinese hackers
By Wayne Specht, Stars and Stripes
U.S.
websites and e-mail servers could be targets of an increasing number of malicious attacks
by Chinese hackers, federal authorities warn.
The attacks
could escalate because of upcoming memorial days in China, the National Infrastructure
Protection Center said in an advisory posted Thursday on its website.
Recent
tension between the United States and China in the aftermath of the Navy EP-3E incident is
believed to have been a factor in several reported attacks.
But
warnings have not reached the Far East, a U.S. Forces-Japan spokeswoman said Friday.
"No
one is doing anything beyond the usual in … our computer and telecommunications
department," Master Sgt. Eudith Rodney said. She said that at several USFJ meetings
she attended Friday, there was no briefing on the threat.
Hackers
have unlawfully defaced a number of U.S. websites, replacing content with pro-Chinese or
anti-U.S. rhetoric, CNN reported Friday.
A Web page
hosting the Hackers Union of China posted a list of 10 websites hacked in memory of a
Chinese pilot, Wang Wei. He was presumed killed April 1 after his fighter jet collided off
the coast of China with a Navy EP-3 based at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
Other
targeted sites, according to a Washington Post report, included two maintained by the U.S.
Navy, although neither was militarily critical.
Hackers
have showered U.S. government and business websites with eulogies for the Chinese pilot,
denouncements of imperialism and crude references.
The Hackers
Union refers to itself an a "network security organization" on its website,
cnhonker.com, according to the CNN report.
Hackers
identifying themselves as union members took credit for at least one attack. The defaced
site was that of Iplexmarin.com, based in California, the CNN report said. The site was
covered in Chinese flags, political slogans in Chinese and English and photographs of Wang
Wei.
"As we
are Chinese, we love our motherland and its people deeply. We are so indignant about the
intrusion from the imperialism. The only thing we could say is that, when we are needed,
we are ready to devote anything to our motherland, even including our lives," the
posting states.
The NIPC
said Chinese hackers have publicly discussed increasing their activity over the next week,
which coincides with dates of historic significance in China.
May 1 marks
traditional May Day activities, May 4 is Youth Day, and May 7 is the second anniversary of
the unintentional bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by U.S. aircraft during NATO
operations.
The
National Infrastructure Protection Center reported last month that an Internet worm named
"Lion" had infected computers. A worm is a malicious program.
Analysis of
the worm’s source code showed it sends password files from the victim site to an
e-mail address in China, the NIPC said.
The NIPC
advisory statement did not specify how many computers were affected. The biggest problem
was denial of service.
Network and
system administrators are being encouraged to more closely monitor their websites and mail
servers April 30 through May, NIPC’s advisory said.
The
NIPC’s website is http://www.nipc.gov.
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