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Titan Rain Falls On London
Chinese hackers - possibly from the military - have been targeting British government offices, a newspaper reports.
Computer networks in Britain's Foreign Office and House of Commons were among those hit by what officials are describing as a "constant ongoing problem."
An attack on the House of Commons last year was previously thought to originate from an individual hacker, the Guardian reports. However, techies now believe that the hack came from an organised team, who may be affiliated to the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The newspaper says that British officials are "coy" about the nature and the success of the targeting - the Ministry of Defence has refused to comment on rumours it was hit by the hackers.
The report comes after both Germany and the United States have complained of targeting by Chinese hackers. The US called the attacks "Titan Rain": They have been ongoing on the Pentagon and other departments for several years, as well as on important industrial programmes such as NASA and Lockheed Martin. In June, hackers succeeded in penetrating parts of the email system of the US Defence Secretary: The US said that it caused only minor disruptions, but was traced to the PLA.
A rather dramatic story in Time Magazine from 2005 claimed that the hackers tried to copy as many files as they could lay their cyber-hands on, before sneaking out while removing any traces of their visit. Sounds like a plot Jack Bauer might face in 24.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have raised the issue of Chinese attacks on German government computer networks with China's rulers: Beijing denies any involvement in such attacks.
There is growing agreeement among defence analysts that the forays into European and American networks represents China's testing of its "pressure point warfare" doctrine. The idea, the Guardian reports, is to block internet communications at the same time as attacking the physical military machine.
Of course, it is likely - indeed, desirable - that western military networks have similar plans for assaults on rival networks, though few potential rivals are as "wired" as those in the NATO alliance.
Furthermore, the attacks raise questions about the status of these hacks. Is it the equivalent of China testing a missile over US airspace?
Both industries and governments in the west have been hit by cyber attacks this year. Some analysts described Russian government attacks on Estonia's network as "cyber-terrorism." Estonia's Prime Minister went so far as to plea to his EU and NATO counterparts for assistance to combat the "heavy attack" by Russian hackers which crippled the government internet.
Later that month, the website of Britain's top-selling broadsheet the Daily Telegraph was brought to a halt by Russian assaults on its servers.
Espionage, as conducted by the PLAs hackers on British and US networks is part and parcel of international politics. Indeed, governments must play a cat-and-mouse game with hostile hackers daily, and learn from where their system has been penetrated. Spying isn't the same as deliberate attempts to disrupt service, however. If a government or business (or, in Estonia's case, an entire country) has its communications zapped by rivals, it is clear that we are dealing with something more than hightech snooping.
