Chinese and Iranian hackers in cyber war

[Smurf-Herder]

Iranians spark China cyberwar
By Kathrin Hille

Published: January 13 2010 02:00 | Last updated: January 13 2010 02:00

An unlikely cyberwar broke out yesterday when Iranian hackers attacked China's leading search engine and Chinese counterparts retaliated against Iranian websites.

In the morning, the web page of Baidu, China's largest internet search engine, was covered with an Iranian flag and other symbols and the words "Iranian Cyber Army".

Not long after, a rallying cry for retaliation emerged in Chinese blogs and in the afternoon, Chinese flags and nationalist slogans started appearing on websites registered in Iran.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/542deb1a-ffe3-11de-ad8c-00144feabdc0.html

[foxbaron]

Just what we need, a world war breaking out amongst the geeks.

Now someone else will have to show them they can do one better than either of them and so on and so on.

By this time next week our ATM machines will no longer work.

[Bill Cosby]

???? Is this about/related to cyber attacks Google said originated in China??

I don't see anyone else saying it began or has anything to do w/ Iran???

:dunno:

[Smurf-Herder]

???? Is this about/related to cyber attacks Google said originated in China??

I don't see anyone else saying it began or has anything to do w/ Iran???

:dunno:

Just a cyber coincidence.

[Bill Cosby]

I read the article but I don't see anyone connecting those dots......

Why do you think ppl in Iran would be fucking w/ Chinese sites???

I don't really hear much about Iranian hackers but I am sure they got theirs like everyone else but the Chinese hackers are some of the best & not to be fucked w/.............

IMO The Chinese, Russian, American as well as some Israeli hackers are the best.......

For hacked warez, games etc Russia, Ukraine, Turkey have them all.......

Cyber fucking w/ any of them is like looking in the gas tank w/ a match...:scared1:

[Smurf-Herder]

I read the article but I don't see anyone connecting those dots......

Why do you think ppl in Iran would be fucking w/ Chinese sites???

I don't really hear much about Iranian hackers but I am sure they got theirs like everyone else but the Chinese hackers are some of the best & not to be fucked w/.............

IMO The Chinese, Russian, American as well as some Israeli hackers are the best.......

For hacked warez, games etc Russia, Ukraine, Turkey have them all.......

Cyber fucking w/ any of them is like looking in the gas tank w/ a match...:scared1:

There was another article I read earlier. I'll look it up later. Something about Chinese twitterers supporting the Iranian opposition, and both government's hackers getting in the mix, with multiple retaliations on both sides.

[Bill Cosby]

There was another article I read earlier. I'll look it up later. Something about Chinese twitterers supporting the Iranian opposition, and both government's hackers getting in the mix, with multiple retaliations on both sides.


Wow that will be really interesting...........

Cyber war..........


From what I have seen about half of them are patriotic/ or semi anyway but that does not stop them from stealing/hacking from their own or anyone else.....

[Bill Cosby]

???? You heard any more on this cyber war or why???

[CosmicRocker]

There was another article I read earlier. I'll look it up later. Something about Chinese twitterers supporting the Iranian opposition, and both government's hackers getting in the mix, with multiple retaliations on both sides. LOL
the 2 govt's restrict info to their own citizens, but the citizens support each other.


"The Revolution will not be televised -the Revolution will be on Twitter"

[Bill Cosby]

I still find it a very odd situation.........

Although I get your point about the citizens, hey there are billions of citizens in the same boat so why mess w/ the biggest sack of hackers on the planet??

I have an idea, projected into or onto the situation in the total absence of a known reason but it sounds a bit............ Whacky or real........

For lack of a better example I will give one that I know usually works & is often practiced....

You go to jail & you don't want anyone fucking w/ you... You want your space & to be respected & not continually having to prove yourself............>>> You find the biggest MF in the cage & you walk over & give him your best shot..............

You don't need to necessarily win but everyone else sees you are not to be fucked w/.............

These Iranians are sending a message..........:thumbsup:



As wars go it was more a skirmish than a battle, but on Tuesday Iran and China traded blows in cyberspace after hackers calling themselves the "Iranian Cyber Army" paralyzed Baidu, China's biggest Internet search engine, for four hours.
(http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2433914)
The same hackers who took the U.S. social networking site Twitter off line for an hour in mid-December apparently lashed out at China and successfully redirected traffic from the Baidu site to one displaying an Iranian flag and the message, "This site has been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army."

There is no obvious reason why Iranian cyber-guerrillas would attack China. Beijing is one of Iran's chief oil customers and has been reluctant to join international calls for imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

But that didn't stop infuriated Chinese nationalists from reacting to the knock-out blow to the Baidu search engine, which serves 77% of China's Internet users.

Calls for retaliation surged across online discussion groups, blogs and bulletin boards, while Chinese flags and patriotic slogans suddenly appeared on Iranian websites.

A group calling itself the "Honker Union For China" briefly defaced Iranian state television's webpage, displaying a large Chinese flag and the message, "We are China's hacker! Let the world hear the voice of China! The state is higher than the dignity of all!"

Another Iranian website, room98.ir, was replaced by a large Chinese flag and a flashing electronic message warning the Iranian Cyber Army, "Don't intrusion [sic] Chinese website."

Even Iran's national wrestling team found itself attacked.

Online discussions of the day-long cyberwar suggested Iranian opposition groups may have posed as the Iranian Cyber Army in a bid to discredit Iran and provoke China.

When the hackers attacked Twitter in December, they appeared to be a pro-government group lashing out at alleged U.S. involvement in protests after Iran's June presidential election.

As opposition demonstrators took to the streets to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the U.S. State Department urged Twitter to delay some scheduled maintenance so it would not interrupt service at the peak of the demonstrations.

Tuesday's acts of cyber-vandalism may obscure a far more sinister fight for the control of new technologies involving Internet censorship, online surveillance and cyberwarfare.

Though it has only 70 million people, Iran has 700,000 blogs and is regarded as the third most active country on the Internet, after the United States and China.

While this wired generation increasingly uses the Internet to challenge the strictures of the Islamic Republic, Iran's rulers are using the web to wage clandestine computer battles against critics at home and abroad.

As authoritarian regimes such as Iran have gained proficiency with the Internet, they have employed the web to identify protesters and critics overseas and harass their families at home.

Dozens of Iranians living in the United States and Europe who have criticized Iran online on Facebook or Twitter say relatives back home have been temporarily detained because of their postings.

In some cases, people returning to Iran have been stopped at Tehran airport by immigration officers and told to log into their Facebook accounts so their on-line comments can be reviewed.

Last summer, at the height of the anti-government protests in Iran, government security forces set up Twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as protesters.

Government attempts to hunt down the bloggers and Tweeters were hampered when international supporters changed their Twitter settings to say they were all in Tehran, making it almost impossible for Iranian officials to sort through the traffic.

During the protests international backers also created a stream of proxy Internet protocol addresses that allowed Iranian bloggers to sidestep government firewalls to get their messages out.

Some North American hackers also devised automated direct denial of service attacks that virtually shut down websites at Iran's information and justice ministries and state-sponsored media outlets.

"The idea was to silence the [pro-Ahmadinejad] anti-dissent messages coming from these outlets, and in so doing, strengthen the opposition protests in Tehran," wrote Matthew Burton, a U.S. blogger.

"We turned our collective power and outrage into a serious weapon that we could use at our will."

National Post

pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2433914#ixzz0czYGSOJo
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[Bill Cosby]

Obama 'troubled' by Google cyber-attacks in China
Google HQ in Beijing
Google says it will stay in China if internet censorship is relaxed

US President Barack Obama continues to be "troubled" by alleged cyber-attacks originating in China on the internet search giant Google, officials say.

A White House spokesman said Mr Obama wanted "some answers" and agreed those responsible should "face consequences".

The comments came after China denounced US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of its internet restrictions, saying it was harming relations.

Google has said it will decide shortly whether to end its China operations.

The company currently holds about one-third of the Chinese search market, far behind Chinese rival Baidu, which has more than 60%.

'Consequences'

Earlier on Friday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the US should "respect the facts" and stop making "groundless accusations".


ANALYSIS
Damian Grammaticas
By Damian Grammaticas, Beijing
For China, the row sparked by Google has put it in an extremely uncomfortable position. It is under the harsh glare of US scrutiny on several sensitive issues: internet censorship, the silencing of dissidents and human rights campaigners, cyber attacks launched from China, and the difficulties big US companies find doing business in China.

Hillary Clinton's criticism of internet controls would have been pretty tough for Beijing to hear. So it is no surprise it has replied robustly. But China is on the back foot in this dispute.

The statement called on the US to "handle sensitive issues in an appropriate way". Decoded, that means China would rather it was all dealt with quietly, something that does not seem likely now the argument has become so public and far-reaching.
Tech groups back Clinton stand
China's media lashes out
Chinese debate internet freedom

"The US has criticised China's policies to administer the internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom," Ma Zhaoxu said.

"This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations."

The warning from Beijing came after Mrs Clinton said in a speech that the internet had been a "source of tremendous progress" in China, but that any country which restricted free access to information risked "walling themselves off from the progress of the next century".

The private sector had a shared responsibility to safeguard freedom of expression and should take a "principled stand" against censorship, she said.

Mrs Clinton also called on the Chinese authorities to investigate Google's complaint that hackers in China had tried to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists, in a "highly sophisticated" attack.

Hillary Clinton: "We look to the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review"

"Countries or individuals that engage in cyber-attacks should face consequences and international condemnation," she added.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday, White House spokesman Bill Burton made it clear that President Obama agreed with her.

"As the president has said, he continues to be troubled by the cyber-security breach that Google attributes to China," he said.


INTERNET ROW TIMELINE
12 Jan: Google says it may leave China after cyber attacks and calls for end to censorship of its search results
13 Jan: US says cyber attacks on Google "troubling"
14 Jan: China gives first reaction to Google statement: foreign firms welcome to work in China "according to law"
16 Jan: US says it will make formal protest over Google cyber attacks
21 Jan: China says its dispute with Google should not be linked to US relations
21 Jan: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticises China's internet controls and urges Beijing to investigate Google attacks
22 Jan: China rejects Mrs Clinton's criticism as "groundless"

Timeline: China and net censorship

"All we are looking for from China are some answers," he added.

Chinese officials have repeatedly said that Google and other foreign internet companies are welcome to operate within China as long as they obeyed the country's laws and traditions.

When the California-based company launched google.cn in 2006, it agreed to censor some search results - such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan independence or Falun Gong - as required by the Chinese government.

Google now says it is looking at operating an unfiltered search engine within the law in the country, though no changes to filtering have yet been made.

China has more internet users - about 350 million - than any other country and provides a lucrative search engine market worth an estimated $1bn (£614m) last year (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8475965.stm)

[Bill Cosby]

China shuts down training website for hackers (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8503637.stm)

China has closed down what is believed to be the country's biggest training website for hackers, state media has reported.

They say the site, Black Hawk Safety Net, gave lessons in hacking and sold downloads of malicious software.

The reports say three people suspected of running the site were arrested.

Hacking is a sensitive topic for China, especially since the internet giant Google recently threatened to pull out of the country.

Google said China-based hackers had attacked its operations but the Chinese government denied any involvement.

The hacker training operation openly recruited thousands of members online and provided them with cyber attack lessons and Trojan software, the China Daily and the Wuhan Evening News said.

Trojans, which can allow outside access to a computer when implanted, are used by hackers to illegally control computers.

Black Hawk Safety Net recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and collected more than seven million yuan ($1m: £650,000) in membership fees, while another 170,000 people had signed up for free membership, the paper said.

The Hubei government refused to comment on the reports.

It was unclear when the shutdown had taken place but the Black Hawk Safety Net site was unavailable on Monday.

Cyber attacks

In January Google threatened to pull out of China unless the government relented on censorship.

It said it had uncovered a computer attack that tried to plunder its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting against Chinese policies.

Government officials have defended China's online censorship and said the country is the biggest victim of web attacks.

China has some 350 million internet users - more than any other country - and provides a lucrative search-engine market worth an estimated $1bn last year.

Google holds about a third of the country's search market, with Chinese rival Baidu having more than 60%.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says that the reports made no link between the hacking site and Google's allegations.

But the case will help authorities show that China is taking action against those who hack into computers, says our correspondent.