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Carlos Barria / Reuters
A Chinese People's Liberation Army soldier stands guard in front of 'Unit 61398,' a secretive Chinese military unit on the outskirts of Shanghai, on Tuesday. The unit is believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks, a U.S. computer security company said, prompting a strong denial by China and accusations that it was in fact the victim of U.S. hacking.
BEIJING -- China's military on Wednesday responded angrily to accusations by an American computer security company of systematic hacking of U.S. business and military interests, arguing it "lacked technical proof and was "not based on fact."
In a statement published on the Chinese Defense Ministry's website in response to the controversial report by Mandiant Corp., the military denied the charges, arguing the data was not enough to connect the hacking to them.
"The report, in only relying on linking IP address to reach a conclusion the hacking attacks originated from China, lacks technical proof," the ministry wrote in its statement, "Everyone knows that the use of usurped IP addresses to carry out hacking attacks happens on an almost daily basis."
The ministry also argued that there was no globally accepted definition of what constitutes hacking.
NBC's Kristen Welker has more on what the White House may be planning to do about foreign agencies hacking into U.S. trade secrets.
"There is still no internationally clear, unified definition of what consists of a 'hacking attack'. There is no legal evidence behind the report subjectively inducing that the everyday gathering of online (information) is online spying."
The Defense Ministry said that China itself is a frequent victim of hacking, a common theme in China's rebuttal of accusations of foul play in cyberspace. The ministry said it had tracked a "considerable number" of attacks against its networks that originated in the United States, but it noted that those intrusions had not been used "as a pretext to accuse the U.S. side [of hacking]."
The statement came a day after Mandiant released an explosive report, first detailed in a New York Times article, that tied a People's Liberation Army unit based in Shanghai to a prolonged and focused campaign of stealing corporate and defense trade secrets.
According to Mandiant, the Chinese hacking unit, believed to be "PLA Unit 61398," employed hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of operatives to raid secure American servers, extracting trade secrets, blueprints, pricing data and other valuable information.
In total, Unit 61398 was said to have pillaged hundreds of terabytes of information from 141 companies -- 115 of which were American -- representing 20 industries in a variety of fields including telecommunications and defense.
The hackers reportedly used techniques such as "spear-phishing" -- using spoof e-mails to trick users into granting access to internal servers -- demonstrating a strong proficiency in English and advanced understanding of computer security and network operations.
China pointed out that its Ministry of Public Security had assisted more than 50 countries and regions in investigating cybercrime cases and that the Beijing had entered into a number of bilateral law enforcement cooperation agreements with those countries to help combat hacking.
The Mandiant report and the media maelstrom around it prompted Chinese state media to lash out at the hacking accusations, though the Chinese-language version of the New York Times story was still blocked in China.
China's typically nationalistic newspaper, Global Times, said Beijing should be more vocal in exposing hacking attacks conducted against China.
"Some officials have been punished for internally reporting that government websites have been hacked and secrets leaked, but almost no details have come out," the paper wrote.
"The Americans really know how to talk this (issue) up. All China can do is concede defeat."
Related:
Report: Chinese army tied to widespread U.S. hacking
Congress urged to probe Chinese computer espionage
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Now don't you worry that the Chinese have broken directly into the very national security of the United States of America. We have Obama. He is really something.
Over 160 high security hacks traced to a single multi story white building in China. I think one cruise missile placed in the center window of the complex will get their attention sufficiently enough.
Maybe an "electronic" missle would be better. Last country in the world to start a war with would be China.
They would launch one back addressed to you!
Worse still, they would just activate the built in trojan horse programs in all the chips they supplied for our cruise missiles! Of course, then we would ask them to send us a couple cargo ships worth of tanks and equipment (on credit) to invade them....
"China pointed out that its Ministry of Public Security had assisted more than 50 countries and regions in investigating cybercrime cases and that the Beijing had entered into a number of bilateral law enforcement cooperation agreements with those countries to help combat hacking."
What better way to plant a bug in someones system. I believe that China can and is doing this. Their tech people seem to be amoung the best at what they do. Do they steal ours or others tech of course they do just as other countries do the same. Do we have agencies that do the same thing of course we do. China just seems to be better at it. Could they cause problems for us, you bet they could. We have allowed this to continue and I don't see where our government has tried to put a stop to it, I mean really tried and this new bill that they are talking about, well just who are they aiming this at, China?, citizens? or the world in general.
Quit buying anything made in China!
Maybe something like this already exists (if so someone please reference) but I always thought that a great potential web site would be one that lists US or North American made product sources as alternatives to Chinese products. There is a growing number of people including me who would pay more for American goods.
It was reported that during the denial the chinese minister's nose grew considerably longer. More to follow on this amazing development.
They're f'in chinese - they think they're being sly and clever - they're basically saying that they collected the information but there are no laws against it - that 'hacking' is not defined - etc, etc, etc.
The Chinese are likc a f'in virus - a plague - which is going to be worse than the Japs ever thought of being.
And we had to safe China from Japan in the 1930's!
Yup, China denies hacking and I have ocean front property in Arizona.
Of course nobody will admit to anything, as would be expected, us included!! There should be a TV Show called "Biggest Liar" with Nations being the contestants. Oh Wait....we already have that, it's called The United Nations!! And everybody's pants are on fire!!
AND we will deny dropping that smart bomb from the drone right down your elevator shaft of the building that the hacking is taking place in.....
Just ask Al Gore. He should know the answer ;),,,he created this mess, lol
One fact is clear about these events which is that the truth will never be known. This is because all sides are doing it and it is humorous when the finger-pointing challenge match gets underway. However, what is more humorous is that China can even entertain the illusion that the source of their hacking cannot be determined nor detected....but this makes for good press in China. Most, if not all, of the technologies in use by these 'electronic detectives' was developed and brought to fruition in the US and is readily available in the commercial marketplace. The rest of the world simply acquires these technologies and make crude but adequate copies for their use. As an engineer who worked in the military domain for ten years I saw Soviet Union and Chinese copies of earlier microprocessors and can attest to this practice....why waste resources to invent the wheel. With the passage of time, and the spread of technological knowledge and experience, there is no doubt that many of these 'enemy' nations have developed technologies of their own. What is most disturbing is the seeming ease with which this hacking is achieved, given the much ballyhooed superiority of American ingenuity and expertise in cyber security. I never worry about my stuff getting hacked because I slander everyone equally...Wall Street, the government, Russia, China, Italy, the Kardashians, The Grammys, Oscars....so my 'enemies' are spread out all over the planet. I picture this scenario in which they are all pursuing me, from all different directions, and we all meet up at a junction in a dark alley where the shootout ensues! Great, huh?
Late development: China hacked Wal Mart's data, found that everything they sell is made in China, quit in disgust...
Find it extremely hard to trust the Chinese government. Their human rights, environmental issues and political agenda in the Pacific ocean say it all. Their policies are simple: hide the heads but expose the tails. It will be interesting to see how our government react to this, denial into shame?
Send them a copy of the tracking log; market it as U.S.A. with a $10 service fee.
We should just hack the Chinese and when they catch and accuse us say...Monkey see Monkey do!!!!
The truth is that all of the larger countries are doing it....."Looks" like they are doing a better job of it than we are. When you read the story about haow they get in thru emails.....how many of you open emails from people you don't know? I would think a little common sense should be exercised. I occasionally get emails that look suspect...I don't open them. Maybe people think they can't get phished at work.
China will always denie any wrong doing, just like the case about H1N1 NO! nothing here. But we ALL know they will try to steal any idea and make it theirs nothing but lies and deceit.
They believe it's ok to lie to their children...I guess that's the way the Chinese must view America...we're as naive as children to trust the scummy Chinese Military. I personally believe the Chinese people are a great and good people...but their government and military needs to be overthrown by its people...and the US needs to grow up and stop buying Chinese and bring our industrial base back. We have scum of our own who have allowed this to happen so they can get rich at the expense of the American middle class. Oh Yes...stop buying at Wal-Mart...it's the outlet store for China.
Well they've kind of got us don't they. We can't offer proof cause they can create ways to get around it on their future hackings. And we can't let the government come in and protect private business from being hacked because the Republicans would scream bloody murder, so I guess we're just screwed.
The u.s needs to get together with the people over at Blizzard.World of warcraft use to have a real bad problem with hacks from china and they fixed it .
yea that's right they don't do it, just like they don't steal our patents and products as well as poison our animals and children with lead and other hazards chemicals in their products. this is all in our imagination.
Glad to see you all are catching on. I dont shop at wal Mart at all. Remember you get what you pay for. The service is awful at Wal Mart.
Really, what the hell did you expect them to say...Yeah, we did it? The USA has some of the best hackers on the planet, why can't we just return the favor and flood them with episodes of the "Walking Dead" dubbed with "this is your future"
What else could they say? "We were at the movies," is a stock line we could all expect, but it doesn't quite fit the situation here.
If its ok for the US government to hack computers then what is wrong with China hacking computers?
People here are understandably upset that their thieves are better than our thieves which is disconcerting since our universities trained most of their thieves.