http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=18985 NBR Newsroom.co.nz agency story 11-Sep-2007 Prime Minister Helen Clark says no classified information has been accessed by foreign nations attempting to hack into government computer systems Security Intelligence Service head, Warren Tucker, told the Dominion Post that government websites have been attacked, information has been stolen and software has been installed that could be used to take control of computer systems. Neither Mr Tucker nor Ms Clark would identify which countries were conducting cyber espionage against New Zealand, but both pointed to reports of other countries recently experiencing similar attacks. Earlier this month reports said Chinese military hackers had found their way into a Pentagon defense system in June, and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has recently raised the issue of Chinese military infiltration into German government computers with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Officially, China has denied the attacks, citing "specific laws" against computer hacking. Ms Clark told reporters today that the hackers had not succeeded in accessing classified information, and the attacks were not unique to New Zealand. "What I can stress is that absolutely no classified information has ever been penetrated by these attacks," she said. The Financial Times recently quoted sources who said the incursions were coming from the Chinese People's Liberation Army, in what appears to be ongoing attempts to perfect asymmetrical warfare capabilities. Asymmetrical warfare involves countries which do not possess the same level of military power as their bigger enemies, adopting dissimilar tactics to wage conflict. The PLA has been working since the mid-1990s to perfect its unconventional warfare capabilities. Hacking into an enemy's computer networks is a tactic in which China has a particular interest, since the U.S. and most Western militaries rely heavily on computerised defense networks. Copyright Fourth Estate Holdings Ltd 2007 ____________________________________ Visit the InfoSec News Bookstore http://www.shopinfosecnews.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Sep 10 2007 - 22:33:37 PDT