Cyber Attack is a reality and China is the main source

 China’s Cyber games


Washington has not had much success persuading Beijing to rein in its hackers even though American officials and security experts have long known that China is the main source of cyber attacks on the United States. 

On Tuesday, a new report from Mandiant, an American computer security firm, publicly documented an explicit link between Chinese hackers and the People’s Liberation Army. 

The report cites a growing body of digital forensic evidence that most of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around a 12-story office tower on the outskirts of Shanghai that is the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.

Mandiant tracked individual members of the most sophisticated of the Chinese hacking groups, known as “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group,” to the headquarters of the military unit, which is central to China’s computer espionage operations. 

It followed “Comment Crew” for six years, monitoring 141 attacks by looking at Web domains, malware, Internet protocol addresses and embedded codes.

Chinese officials denounced the report, but their reaction was hardly a denial. 



In a second development that could further raise the stakes for Beijing, Washington decided to share with American Internet providers and antivirus vendors information about the unique signatures of the largest of the Chinese groups, including those originating from the area where Unit 61398 is based. 

The government warnings will not link the hackers and their computers to the Chinese Army as such, but the effects will be felt when the hackers and computers are denied access to American networks, as many of the Internet providers and antivirus vendors are expected to do. 
 

Americans are increasingly concerned about cyber attacks intended:

1)to steal corporate secrets and



2) to “sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air traffic control systems,”
as President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address.

 
As a defensive measure, Mr. Obama last week signed an executive order promoting increased information-sharing about cyber threats between the government and private companies that oversee the country’s critical infrastructure, including its electrical power grid, gas lines and waterworks. 



 



 


Read More:
China’s Cybergames - NYTimes.com
 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/opinion/chinas-cybergames.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130220&_r=0