[Infowarrior] - Congress says Chinese hacked their PCs

[Richard Forno]

Congressmen say Chinese hacked their PCs
Dissident locations, other sensitive data intercepted
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco → More by this author
Published Wednesday 11th June 2008 23:19 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/congressional_computers_breached/

Lawmakes are urging everyone on Capitol Hill to have their computers  
checked for malware after discovering that people working from inside  
China hacked into multiple congressional machines and accessed  
locations of Chinese dissidents and other sensitive data.

Virginia Representative Frank Wolf said four of his PCs were  
compromised, beginning in August 2006. New Jersey Representative Chris  
Smith, said two of his machines were hacked in December 2006 and March  
2007. Both congressmen, who are long-time critics of China's record on  
human rights, said the PCs of other lawmakers had also been breached  
but declined to give names.

Following the attacks on Wolf's computers, a car with license plates  
belonging to Chinese officials went to the home of a dissident near  
Washington and photographed it. The congressman said FBI investigators  
who looked into the breach traced the attacks to machines located in  
China. He said he's known about the attacks for a long time but that  
he had been discouraged from discussing them by people in the US  
government he declined to identify.

"The problem has been that no one wants to talk about this issue," he  
said. "Every time I've started to do something I've been told 'You  
can't do this.' A lot of people have made it very, very difficult."

Wolf suggested members of the Senate have also been victims of  
computer intrusion. He called for better education for members of  
Congress about the dangers of cyber attacks and urged members to have  
their machines checked. He said he was introducing a resolution that  
would tighten security of House computers and information systems. In  
the Senate, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois asked the sergeant at arms  
to investigate whether Senate computers have been breached.

Smith said the attacks on his machines were "were very much an  
orchestrated effort." His office no longer stores the names of Chinese  
dissidents on computers, he said. ®