El peligro del espionaje chino

martes, diciembre 18, 2007

Esto es de hace varios días, pero es sumamente importante. Ya con anterioridad tanto EEUU, como Canadá o Alemania habían protestado del espionaje chino, por supuesto siempre negado por el Gobierno del país oriental (incluso diciendo que ellos habían sufrido pérdida de datos para probablemente así incrementar aún más la censura). Pero ahora el MI5 ha acusado a China abiertamente de llevar a cabo un espionaje masivo contra partes vitales de la economía británica, incluyendo sistemas informáticos de grandes bancos y empresas de servicios financieros.

Así que el MI5 ha alertado de esta actividad a 300 directivos de estas áreas a través de una carta en la que se mencionan las preocupaciones del Director General sobre un posible peligro a los negocios ingleses proveniente de un ataque electrónico financiado por organizaciones estatales chinas, y el hecho de que los ataques están diseados para vencer los sistemas de seguridad más sofisticados. El momento es crítico porque el Gobierno inglés ha perdido varias veces datos personales de los ciudadanos.

Entre otros recursos, se incluyen diversos "Troyanos" chinos diseñados para hackear una red de ordenadores y mandar al origen todos los datos confidenciales. Como no podía ser menos, China lo ha negado y ha acusado de irresponsabilidad al gobierno británico.

¿Por qué esto es preocupante? Porque esta misma semana se ha anunciado en el Congreso de EEUU que el ejército USA es vulnerable a los sistemas avanzados de guerra chinos, incluyendo las armas espaciales y los ataques de ordenador que pudieran ser usados en una más que posible guerra/conflicto a propósito de Taiwan.

Si a ellos le unimos, el hecho de que China le ha vendido tecnología militar de construcción de misiles a Irán (ya decía yo que Rusia no se iba a separar de China), y que Corea del Norte está armando a Hizbullah (curioso después del bombardeo israelí a Siria precisamente por un sospechoso cargamento norcoreano) comprendemos el problema gravísimo en el que nos encontramos.
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MI5 alert on China’s cyberspace spy threat - Times Online

The Government has openly accused China of carrying out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of Britain’s economy, including the computer systems of big banks and financial services firms.

In an unprecedented alert, the Director-General of MI5 sent a confidential letter to 300 chief executives and security chiefs at banks, accountants and legal firms this week warning them that they were under attack from “Chinese state organisations”. It is believed to be the first time that the Government has directly accused China of involvement in web-based espionage. Such a blunt and explicit warning from Jonathan Evans could have serious diplomatic consequences and cast a shadow over Gordon Brown’s first official visit to China as Prime Minister early in the new year.

A summary of the MI5 warning, a copy of which has been seen by The Times, was posted on a secure government website. It says that Mr Evans wrote to business leaders “warning them of the electronic espionage attack”.

The summary, on the website of the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure, says: “The contents of the letter highlight the following: the Director-General’s concerns about the possible damage to UK business resulting from electronic attack sponsored by Chinese state organisations, and the fact that the attacks are designed to defeat best-practice IT security systems.”
This is not the first time Chinese spying threat has been uncovered by Western agencies. And considering the lack of security that Britain is showing with the citizens' data [1 y 2], we can imagine the danger... From IHT:
It included ways of identifying Chinese "Trojans," software designed to hack into a computer network and feed back confidential data, The Times said.
Of course, China has denied this and has accused UK Government of being irresponsive.

More in Status of Chinese people, and Times Online:
Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5.

Jonathan Evans sent a confidential letter to 300 chief executives and security chiefs at banks, accountants and legal firms

This happens as (again) the Chinese arsenal is worrying in the West:

The U.S. military is vulnerable to China’s advanced war-fighting systems, including space weapons and computer attacks that would be used in a future conflict over Taiwan, according to a congressional commission’s report released yesterday.

The full report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also provides more details than the summary released last week, showing that China is engaged in a “large-scale industrial espionage campaign” with “scores” of cases involving spies seeking U.S. technology.

The full report presents a harsh assessment of China’s military buildup and plans for a war against the U.S. if Beijing decided to use force against the island nation of Taiwan.

Apart from that, Epaminondas has written on his blog about the China-Iran connection:

China supplied the technology for Iran's first solid-fuel missile

JERUSALEM — Iran has developed its first intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile. Israeli intelligence sources said Iran has developed a solid-fuel missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers.

The intelligence sources said Iran acquired solid-fuel technology from China. In 2002, Iran developed the Fateh-110 single-stage solid-propellant, surface-to-surface missile with a range of 200 kilometers Iran has also reported the development of a supercomputer for dual-use applications. The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the computer contained 216 AMD processors and a "theoretical peak performance of 860 gig-flops."

The sources said the Ashoura missile, similar in range to the Shihab-3, would enable Iran to rapidly prepare an attack against Israel.

In the same post, there is information that North Korea has been helping Hizbollah. It's curious this help, after Israeli bombing in Syria some weeks ago.

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