I cannot find one erg of surprise in this eWeek IT article:
News Analysis: Recent cyber-attacks against Google Gmail, Lockheed Martin and other U.S. defense contractors came from Chinese Military Vocational Academy, investigators say. China blames the United States.
The hackers that launched attacks against Google’s Gmail system, Lockheed Martin, L3 and Northrup Grumman may have been based at a vocational school run by the People’s Liberation Army in Jinan, China, investigators say.
The investigators from Google have passed their evidence along to the FBI, which is performing a follow-up investigation. Jinan is also the headquarters of the Chinese intelligence service, and both that organization and the PLA have repeatedly said that China is beefing up its cyber-war capabilities.
The attacks against Google focused on U.S. government employees and members of the U.S. military, according to statements by Google. Other news reports say that the victims’ Google Gmail boxes have been secured since the attacks were discovered. Further more security software company Trend Micro has reported that Yahoo and Hotmail Web email services also have been hit by similar attacks….
In addition, two scholars from the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences wrote in the China Youth Daily newspaper that the military is making preparations to fight the Internet war.
Read the whole article at
http://www.eweek.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=69022&pop=1&hide_ads=1&page=0&hide_js=1&catid=45
How about all of you sysadmins? Do your server and website logs show prolonged, persistent, continuous attacks in every variety, from clever to dumb? Have you run a reverse DNS lookup on the IP addresses involved? I have, many a time. The vast majority of them resolve to Chinese educational institutions. Like that vocational school in Jinan.
I just about starting to think that we’re so stupid we haven’t noticed this war is already underway. We’d better do something to secure the jewels, tout de suite.
[UPDATE]
Cyberwar is here and now:
Anonymous claims control of Iranian gov’t servers
Hackers claiming to be part of protest group “Anonymous” published on Friday over 10,000 internal emails from the Iranian government’s ministry of foreign affairs, as part of an ongoing campaign against the authoritarian regime.
They also pointed to a declaration of intent to attack the Iranian government, which they published to YouTube in February.
There’s an article and a video at
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/03/anonymous-claims-control-of-iranian-govt-servers/