courtesy: owni.eu
Is China's military behind the recent tempest of hacking that has hit newspapers and government interests alike?
Recent investigations by counter-hacking firms now suspect the Chinese army as a possible source of the pervasive hacking activity that has hit 141 countries. The investigation has identified the source as being located in a small section of Shanghai.
The amount of data stolen is believed to be in the hundreds of terabytes.
China has denied any involvement, citing the fact that hacking is transnational and difficult to trace.
When the investigators tried to observe the Shanghai site, they were swiftly detained by Chinese authorities. Any footage they recorded was kept by the arresting authorities.
But the investigators maintain that the source they identified has been active at least since 2006 and is a single source operator with widespread activity around the globe.
Because of the longevity and the range of the hacking activity, the investigating group believes it can only be a government funded operation.
They also contend that near the building they identified as the geographic location of operations, is located a Chinese Army Unit with similar capabilities.
The operating unit, the investigators surmise, is staffed in the hundreds of top notch, English speaking, highly skilled computer operators, making the chance of being a single rogue individual operation slim to none.
Furthermore, a great deal of the information stolen by the hackers seems to be aimed at obtaining competitive information from the business sector that are strategically important to the Chinese Five Year Plan of economic growth.
source: BBC 2.19.13
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