. Military Space News .
CYBER WARS
China directed Google hacking: leaked US documents

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Nov 28, 2010
The United States believes that China's leadership has directed a hacking campaign into computers of Google and Western governments, according to US diplomatic files leaked Sunday.

The documents obtained by whistleblower site WikiLeaks revealed the intense and sometimes fraught diplomacy between the two Pacific powers on a range of issues -- particularly Iran and North Korea.

In one cable, the US embassy in Beijing said it learned from "a Chinese contact" that the country's Politburo had led years of hacking into computers of the United States, its allies and Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

The New York Times, which viewed the cable, said the embassy found that attacks against Google were "part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government."

Google announced in March that it would no longer follow the communist government's instructions to filter searches for sensitive material after attacks against the company and Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents.

Hacking campaigns originating from China have been reported before, but US officials have stopped short of publicly accusing Beijing of orchestrating cyber warfare.

The thousands of leaked documents also recounted efforts by the United States to persuade China to rein in North Korea.

In one secret memo on the WikiLeaks website, the United States in 2008 instructed its embassies to press China and Central Asian nations to block a North Korean plane suspected of proliferating weapons to Iran.

In another cable a year earlier reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper, the United States asked Beijing to stop what it believed to be a missile shipment from North Korea to Iran transiting through China.

Beijing is considered the only country with real influence in reclusive North Korea.

In a meeting late last year, senior Chinese official Wang Jiarui is quoted as reiterating Beijing's call for stability on the Korean peninsula and urging the United States to reach out to the North by promising not to seek regime change.

Despite the lack of movement on North Korea, the documents gave an upbeat US assessment on China's position on Iran.

A cable on the WikiLeaks website said Wang praised US policy on Iran in a meeting with Williams Burns, the State Department number three, and said Tehran should not seek nuclear weapons.

In another cable, a Chinese official dismissed concerns that Beijing's standing in the Islamic world was hurt by its response to 2009 ethnic bloodshed in the Xinjiang region, whose indigenous Uighur population is mostly Muslim.

An official was quoted as saying that China had stepped up media outreach in the Middle East to prevent any backlash, including setting up an Arabic-language version of state-run China Central Television.

The cables show China venting anger at the United States for refusing to hand over 22 Uighurs originally held at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The United States cleared the men of wrongdoing but feared they would face persecution in China.

Cables depicted US officials searching the world asking countries to take Guantanamo inmates, with Slovenia's leadership told that a meeting with US President Barack Obama was linked to its decision on taking a prisoner.

According to another document, the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan last year confronted her Chinese counterpart on information that Beijing offered three billion dollars if the neighboring country shut the Manas air base, a key US conduit for the war in Afghanistan.

The Chinese ambassador, Zhang Yannian, "ridiculed the notion of such a deal, he did not deny it outright," US Ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller wrote.

"'It would take three dollars from every Chinese person' to pay for it," she quoted him as saying. "'If our people found out, there'd be a revolution.'"

The United States eventually renewed US rights to the air base after the United States ramped up compensation.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


CYBER WARS
China directed Google hacking: leaked US documents
Washington (AFP) Nov 28, 2010
The United States believes that Chinese authorities orchestrated a hacking campaign into computers of Google and Western governments, according to leaked documents cited Sunday by The New York Times. The secret cables released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks included one in which the US embassy in Beijing cited "a Chinese contact" who pointed to a government role in the hacking, the newspape ... read more







CYBER WARS
Russia made no missile defence offer to NATO: ambassador

NATO rebuffs Russian missile defense offer: report

Medvedev wants missile defence carve-up of Europe: reports

McCain: 'Waste no time' on missile shield

CYBER WARS
Raytheon Rolling Airframe Missile Block 2 Completes Key Flight Test

Lockheed Martin's JAGM Hits Target From 6 Kilometers

Tehran has defences against cruise missiles: Iran

JASSM-ER Test Flights Highlight Outstanding Development Effort

CYBER WARS
US drone attack kills three militants in Pakistan: officials

Aurora Flight Sciences Rolls Out Orion UAS

US drone attack kills three militants in Pakistan: officials

Boeing Phantom Ray Completes Low-speed Taxi Tests

CYBER WARS
Codan Receives JITC Certification For 2110 HF Manpack

Northrop Grumman Bids for Marine Corps Common Aviation CnC

DSP Satellite System Celebrates 40 Years

ManTech Awarded US Army Contract To Provide ECCS In Afghanistan

CYBER WARS
US Reservists Clear Path For Air Force Largest Rocket

Rheinmetall And Sikorsky Present Cyclone Naval Helicopter

Robots To Rescue Wounded On Battlefield

Russia 'gives Iran top new radar'

CYBER WARS
Saab Receives FMV Gripen Order For Thailand

EADS wont rule out protest over mix-up

Nigerian court charges Iranian over arms cache

Russia, NATO agree on armoured vehicles transfers: Lavrov

CYBER WARS
Leaked wires show undiplomatic US take on leaders

US suspected China pressing Kyrgyzstan: leaked files

US diplomats asked to spy on foreign dignitaries: WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks unleashes a flood of damaging US cables

CYBER WARS
Boeing Installing Beam Control System On HEL Laser Demonstrator

Maritime Laser System Shows Higher Lethality At Longer Ranges

Northrop Grumman To Increase Efficiency For Next-Gen Military Laser Technology

Boeing Receives Task Order For Design Of Free Electron Laser Lab Demonstrator


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement