China Launches Cyber Attacks on U.S. Companies
The attacks on Google by Chinese hackers have dominated the cyber-news recently. A closer look, however, reveals that at least 20 other major U.S. corporations are targets of the cyber-spies.
“This is not a Google story,” said Peter Navarro, author of “The Coming China Wars.” “It is a story about industrial espionage, coming from China, attacking American business and our economy.”
CBS reports that Navarro says the companies believed to have been attacked include Dow Chemical and Northrop Grumman.
“When they hack American business enterprises, it is a covert act of war on our economy at a time when their economy is growing at over 10 percent and we have a 10 percent unemployment rate,” Navarro said.
George Kurtz from computer security company McAfee, says the attacks were sophisticated and precisely targeted, “designed to get in, cover its tracks and steal corporate secrets and get out.”
“Think about the amount of money they spend on [research and development] on a yearly basis -billions of dollars,” Kurtz said. “Having trade secrets and potentially source code taken can be very damaging to them.
According to CBS, it seemed initially to be a cyber attack aimed at those who organized protests against China’s control of Tibet. Still Tenzin Seldon, a student at Stanford, was surprised when Google told her someone in China was reading her e-mail, CBS stated.
“These hackers had to use some kind of high tech things which they could have access to my password,” Seldon said.
“Actually, she said, there is a saying in our community that if you’re not being watched by the Chinese government, you are probably not doing the best you can”
