Another example of systematic computer attacks against human rights activists in China.
BEIJING — In what appears to be a coordinated assault, the e-mail
accounts of at least a dozen rights activists, academics and journalists
who cover China have been compromised by unknown intruders. A Chinese
human rights organization also said that hackers disabled its Web site
for a fifth straight day.
The infiltrations, which involved Yahoo e-mail accounts, appeared to be
aimed at people who write about China and Taiwan, rendering their
accounts inaccessible, according to those who were affected. In the case
of this reporter, hackers altered e-mail settings so that all
correspondence was surreptitiously forwarded to another e-mail address.
The attacks, most of which began last Thursday, occurred the same week
that Google angered the Chinese government by routing Internet search
engine requests out of the mainland to a site in Hong Kong. Google said
the move was prompted by its objections to censorship rules and by a
spate of attacks on Google e-mail users that the company suggested had
originated in China.
Those cyberattacks, which began as early as last April, affected dozens
of American corporations, law firms and individuals, many of them rights
advocates critical of China’s authoritarian government.
The victims of the most recent intrusions included a law professor in
the United States, an analyst who writes about China’s security
apparatus and several print journalists based in Beijing and Taipei, the
capital of Taiwan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/world/asia/31china.html
Another film festival web site attacked for showing a “controversial” documentary about the Uygur people.
A well-known Chinese hacker has struck again, hitting a film festival
showing a documentary about Uygur separatist Rebiya Kadeer.
Around 3 pm Monday, Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Film Festival webpage was
replaced with an image of the People’s Liberation Army with China’s
national anthem playing in the background. The image was later changed
to a picture of Kadeer with the Dalai Lama, who recently visited Taiwan.
The hacker defaced the website with the message: “Against Xinjiang
separatists, against Tibet separatists and happy 60th birthday to the
People’s Republic of China! Perhaps oldjun!”
“Oldjun” is also the hacker who replaced the official website of the
Melbourne Film Festival with an image of the Chinese flag and some
anti-Kadeer slogans in late July after the organizer refused to withdraw
the documentary.
“I hacked into their website because I simply want to express people’s
anger about the screening of the film,” the 25-year-old network
administrator “oldjun” from Nanjing exclusively told China Daily Monday.
“It is the same reason why I hacked into the Melbourne Film Festival’s
website.”
He said he found security flaws in the website and hacked into it within
one minute. “It is my own doing. Nobody told me to do it. I really don’t
understand why they have to show the film.” The website returned to
normal around 7 pm last night.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-09/22/content_8719448.htm
Oxblood Ruffin has written a thought provoking and scathing piece on Internet censorship; highlighting the hypocrisy of those who praise Internet freedom while allowing those who build the tools that make censorship possible to quietly profit from it.
President Obama and Germany’s Chancellor Merkel have both been just a teensy bit hypocritical in their support of the Iranian people. While they’ve voiced that support, they are also actively supporting the Western corporations supplying censorware and weaponry to Iran – and other human rights violators.
China, the country that single-handedly established the world’s most robust national firewall, was always seen as a cash cow by American IT firms. It had Google, Microsoft, Cisco, and Yahoo sucking on all four teats, and their efforts have borne fruit.
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Siemens/Nokia – a European alliance – has stitched together a reasonably effective control mechanism for its clients in Tehran.
You can’t support free speech while siding with those who oppress it
Tor Project <<—- Support it – donate now.
While reading about a new IE7 exploit being used in the wild, I stumbled across this reference to possible further political attacks originating from China. As we have covered here in the past. Including the paper “When Dragons Attack”.
Yaneza and Ferguson speculated that the current attacks are precursors to a much larger assault that will revive a campaign that tempted users with news about Tibet. Those attacks, which Trend Micro reported in January 2008, share some characteristics with the newest exploits, including malware disguised as Word documents. Yaneza also said that it appears as though the hacker’s command-and-control server is based in China, lending more credence to their theory.
“This is the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan freedom movement,” said Ferguson, who said it’s likely that a large-scale attack based on this exploit would use that news as bait. In 1959, when the People’s Republic of China took full control of Tibet, the Dali Lama fled to India, where he is the head of a Tibetan government-in-exile.
Hackers jump on newest IE7 bug
While we here at Ironcove.net are big fans of Linux on the desktop, we are also aware that it can be a scary proposition for those who have used Microsoft products for years. Running an alternative browser on your Windows platform is often a first step towards greater security against malware and getting away from the control that Microsoft exerts through its dominance. Opera have an alternative browser to Firefox and Internet Explorer, and the latest version has some great anti-malware features that could be an excellent defense against malware based attacks.
A good review of the new version of Opera 9.5 is over at Linuxdesktop.org
The centerpiece of version 9.5 is a security package based on technology from Haute Secure, Netcraft, and PhishTank, that the Norway-based Opera Software calls “Opera Fraud Protection.” The anti-malware feature from Haute Secure automatically blocks offending Web pages to protect against malware and other security threats. The browser queries Opera’s servers when a user requests a new webpage and then checks it against the HauteSecure list of blacklisted pages in the same domain. Meanwhile, verson 9.5 continues to update anti-phishing features from PhishTank, which were introduced in Opera 9.1 back in December 2006.
Once again we have governments feeling threatened by their own citizens. Bloggers beware I am afraid there is much more of this to come. Know what you are doing and where threats may come from – there are ways to blog safely using a pseudonym. Get educated and stay safe.
The Malaysian government has warned it could use tough anti-terrorism laws against bloggers who insult Islam or the countrys king.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Malaysia cracks down on bloggers
Reporters Without Borders – Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents Guide
Some good coverage from BoingBoing on the censhorship of an outspoken and widely read chinese blogger.
Boing Boing: Report: Outspoken Chinese blogger censored by Microsoft
In todays world there are two things required for a media outlet. Credibility and strong information security kung-fu. Looks like these guys are struggling with both.
Malicious hackers succeeded in forcing a Russian government-run TV station off the air on Monday just two days after its launch. Russia Today broadcasts in English and is designed to counterbalance what the Kremlin perceives is unfair treatment of Russia by foreign broadcasters.
Hackers topple Kremlin-sponsored broadcaster | Channel Register
Not much to add to this, simply be aware of the need for Security. Now might be a good time for a review of your current security posture.
The Charity Commission has warned charities to protect themselves against internet risks after hackers attacked the online security systems of a Christian charity, Aid to the Church in Need, and stole details of over 2,000 online donors.
Hackers target Christian charity | The Register
This project contains some good background information on the need for secure communications (email, fax, phone). The latest update was January 2004 – i am endeavouring to get some information to see if this is still an active project as it appears to be a very focused initative.
Human rights workers, medical aid workers, war crimes investigators and field journalists, are guardians of the public’s interests. Because their work exposes human rights violations, they are challenged by unique dangers when using mass communication networks. Social justice professionals collect sensitive information and communicate it over public networks (e.g. the Internet). They therefore require privacy to protect their data from interception and tampering and they must be able to verify the sender and the contents of electronic source material. The current telecommunications infrastructure (e-mail, phone, fax, etc.) is extremely insecure and could result in e-mail containing evidence being intercepted and altered by those responsible for an atrocity.
CRF: Project HighFire | Overview
