Is Your Company’s Server Safe in China?
April 15th, 2010
The New York Times ran an excellent piece recently on a University of Toronto team that used its own stealthy methods to shadow a China based network of hackers who broke into the highest levels of the Indian government’s computer network system The Chengdu based group, which called itself the Shadow Network, pilfered highly classified information that the University Team also became privy to, and about which it notified the Indian Government:
“The researchers also found evidence that Indian Embassy computers in Kabul, Moscow and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and at the High Commission of India in Abuja, Nigeria had been compromised.
Also compromised were computers used by the Indian Military Engineer Services in Bengdubi, Calcutta, Bangalore and Jalandhar; the 21 Mountain Artillery Brigade in Assam and three air force bases. Computers at two Indian military colleges were also taken over by the spy ring.
Beyond the Indian Government, infected targets included the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses as well as computers at India Strategic Defense Magazine and Force Magazine. The researchers also found that computers at YKK India Private Limited, DLF Limited and TATA, as well as other companies were compromised.”
The Canadian team of researchers watched the hackers for eight months, and waseven able to identify a couple of the individuals in China responsible for the hacks. Of course, those of us who live in China have little doubt who was behind the hacker ring.
Which brings us to the question of the extent to which the computer systems of foreign companies based in China are vulnerable to intrusion by the local hackers and the powers that be. One of the revelations I drew from the NYT article was that the invasion of the Indian network provided entry into the secured networks of other countries, and into NATO as well. So, if Chinese hackers can do that abroad, what might their capabilities be like on their own turf, with companies they could care less about, but whose information might bring them riches and accolades from the right buyer?
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