back to article Juno this ain't right! Chinese hackers target Alaska

An attack on US government facilities in Alaska has been traced back to China's Tsinghua University and a larger hacking effort. Researchers with security house Recorded Future say [PDF] that the attack, initially focused on seperatist activity in Tibet, grew to to target US government operations in the Pacific including bases …

  1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Tsinghua IP

    They used their own network?

    Surely they couldn't be that dumb - so it must be a false flag

    Unless they thought of that and used their own IP - to convince everyone it was a false flag !

    But perhaps that's what they want you to think !

    Unless it's all a double bluff?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tsinghua IP

      "Unless it's all a double bluff?"

      I suspect it's all propaganda.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Chinese attack on US government facilities

    Just who will protect us from these Chinese commie bastards. You would think Tsinghua would be clever enough to disguise their location. What would be interesting to know is the nature of the computing infrastructure and how they got in.

  3. Florida1920
    Childcatcher

    A response to the tariff rhetoric?

    Would-be spammer registration attempts to my phpBB board had been scarce for a while, but now I'm seeing a few a week, from Chinese IP addresses. Then there was the meaningless set of search strings resulting in 404 errors, reported by Google, that looked like someone trying to look for vulnerabilities. My board would be as interesting to a Chinese hacker as a recipe for egg drop soup, so I figure it's being used to train entry-level hackers, the kids destined to do Great Things to our cyber infrastructure when Winnie the Pooh pushes the Big Red Button. If someone in power over here would stop whining about the so-called "witch hunt" and pay attention to his duties, I'd feel better, as we really should be prepared for some push back on every conceivable vector.

    1. Malcolm Weir Silver badge

      Re: A response to the tariff rhetoric?

      So you don't expect to feel better any time soon, then?

      1. Florida1920
        Pint

        Re: A response to the tariff rhetoric?

        So you don't expect to feel better any time soon, then?

        There's always this to help --->

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    A note to you Brits

    I like the title pun EXCEPT Juno is the Roman goddess Juneau is the Alaskan Capital.

    1. Mike Moyle
      Pint

      Re: A note to you Brits

      Juneau, I was just about to make that point. Have one of these for getting there first! ---------->

  5. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Just Tsinghua University?

    They should get that firewall checked out. You should normally see the entire country of China attacking non-stop.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Just Tsinghua University?

      "Finish Him"

  6. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

    There is not enough OMG for this

    Meanwhile, don't work for the CIA:

    Botched CIA Communications System Helped Blow Cover of Chinese Agents: The number of informants executed in the debacle is higher than initially thought.

    “You could tell the Chinese weren’t guessing. The Ministry of State Security [which handles both foreign intelligence and domestic security] were always pulling in the right people,” one of the officials said.

    “When things started going bad, they went bad fast.”

    The former officials also said the real number of CIA assets and those in their orbit executed by China during the two-year period was around 30, though some sources spoke of higher figures. The New York Times, which first reported the story last year, put the number at “more than a dozen.” All the CIA assets detained by Chinese intelligence around this time were eventually killed, the former officials said.

    ...

    The covert communications system used in China was first employed by U.S. security forces in war zones in the Middle East, where the security challenges and tactical objectives are different, the sources said. “It migrated to countries with sophisticated counterintelligence operations, like China,” one of the officials said.

    The system was not designed to withstand the scrutiny of a place like China, where the CIA faced a highly sophisticated intelligence service and a completely different online environment.

    As part of China’s Great Firewall, internet traffic there is watched closely, and unusual patterns are flagged. Even in 2010, online anonymity of any kind was proving increasingly difficult.

    1. Aodhhan

      Re: There is not enough OMG for this

      This is old news. It happened during the Obama administration around 5-8 years ago.

      Part of the problem uncovered in an after action report, was the lack of funding the Obama administration provided to the department of defense, DARPA and intelligence agencies. This forced them to use poor quality products and take shortcuts both logically and physically regarding intelligence techniques, tactics and procedures.

  7. Aodhhan

    Not attempting to hide IP

    The IP wasn't hidden, because more than likely this wasn't done by the government. It was instead carried out by students and/or faculty at the university. In China, it's a HUGE crime to attempt to hide your actions or use devices such as Onion routers, external proxies, etc.

    China's strict control of the Internet within their country, does provide some benefits to intelligence communities in more than just this reason.

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