U.S. congressmen say computers compromised by Chinese
Two U.S. congressmen who are longtime critics of China's human rights record have accused China of compromising computers that had information related to political dissidents.
Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, says four of his computers were compromised beginning in 2006. New Jersey Republican Chris Smith said two of his computers used for the global human rights subcommittee in the House Foreign Affairs Committee were compromised in December 2006 and March 2007.
"My suspicion is that I was targeted by Chinese sources because of my long history of speaking out about China's abysmal human rights record," according to a transcript of Wolf's statement before the U.S. House on Wednesday.
Wolf requested that House leadership ask the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to brief members of Congress on the threats of laptops, cell phones, and mobile devices when traveling, particularly to countries where access to information is tightly controlled by the government.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang denied the accusations, according to The Associated Press.
"Is there any evidence?...Do we have such advanced technology? Even I don't believe it," Qin said during a regularly scheduled news conference. "I'd like to urge some people in the U.S. not to be paranoid."
The charges follow allegations made late last month that Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a laptop left unattended when Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez was in Beijing in December. The information from the laptop was allegedly used to try to break into Commerce Department computers.
Chinese hackers are also believed to have been behind several attempts to get information from top government groups around the globe, according to the Virtual Criminology Report (PDF) released by McAfee last year.
In April, the Overseas Security Advisory Council released a China 2008 Crime & Safety Report that said:
"All means of communication--telephones, cellular phones, faxes, e-mail, text messages, etc., are likely monitored. The Chinese government has access to the infrastructure operated by the limited number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and wireless providers operating in China. Wireless access to the Internet in major metropolitan areas is becoming more and more common. As such, the Chinese can more easily access official and personal computers. The Chinese government has publicly declared that it regularly monitors private e-mail and Internet browsing through cooperation with local ISPs."
Larry Wortzel, chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, sums it up this way: "There is a high likelihood--virtually 100 percent--that if an individual is of security, political, or business interest to Chinese...security services or high technology industries, their electronics can and will be tampered with or penetrated," USA Today reported.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
Well, I want to see proof this time buster. I don't care what you say, I'm not swallowing an invasion of China without proof...
http://www.genealogymagazine.com/luckhoo.html
How goes the "H-1B" Visas processing - "number for (against) number"!
First lets talk about our average congressmen, that thinks that there is a need to educate about the issue of leaving confidential documents unattended in a foreign country to be copied....whether those documents are on a computer or printed on paper.
HMMM...yes congressmen, some education is in order. Perhaps if both of you went to jail for your idiotic behavior that would warn future congressmen to not be unfathomonable idiots in the future.
If you have security clearance, you should know 101 about not taking those documents to foreign countries and leaving them unattended.
The proof appears to be that the information was used. So obviously they have it.
They may not give us absolute proof, but luckily the problem is solveable here...if not the chinese, it will be another government...you just don't do these type of idiotic things.
Yes, that's impressive since you believe all the Chinese Communist propaganda. So if you don't believe something then it's really notable for its stupidity I guess.
This is a joke right?? The last few paragraphs sound just like the policies of GEORGE W. BUSH and this Great USA. Are yousure they're talking about China?
what a load of crap. Maybe you haven't heard of gitmo , baghram, belmarsh or any other american or american ally's dungeon for holding "islamists" for speaking out against american policies or israeli policies. Why mention israel? because Israel is ofcourse america's 51st state.
- by Badr220 May 7, 2009 8:04 AM PDT
- The unattended PC security risk is a serious one. Fortunantely there are solutons out there that eliminate this security vulnerability.
- Reply to this comment
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(21 Comments)See www.viionsystems.com for an example of what is available today.
These solutions use facial tracking & recognition to lock a workstation when the user leaves, and unlock it when they return. This makes it impossible for an un-authorized user to access someone?s computer session (such as a Chinese spy!).
This is a technology that should be implemented for any computing access that contains or has access to security-critical data.