China Denies Breaking Into U.S. Computers

China on Tuesday, Sept. 4, denied a report that its military had hacked into Pentagon computers, saying the allegations were "groundless" and that Beijing was opposed to cybercrime.^[1]

It was reported Monday that the People's Liberation Army hacked into a computer system in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June; the attack forced officials to take down the network for more than a week.^[2]

"Some people make groundless accusations against China [that its military attacked the Pentagon,] China has all along been opposed to and forbids criminal activities undermining computer networks, including hacking, China is ready to strengthen cooperation with other countries, including the U.S., in countering Internet crimes," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news briefing."^[3]

The Pentagon is still investigating how much information was stolen, but cited an unnamed person as saying that most of it was probably unclassified.^[4] However, no matter how unclassified the information was, this remains a significant national security issue.

It was the second time in two weeks that China was accused of hacking into a foreign government's computers; a German periodical, Der Spiegel, asserted that computers at the German Chancellery and three ministries had been infected with so-called Trojans, or spy programs.^[5] The report stated that Germany's domestic intelligence agency believed a group of hackers associated with the People's Liberation Army might have been behind the alleged hacking.^[6]

The Pentagon warned earlier this year that China's army is emphasizing hacking as an offensive weapon, citing Chinese military exercises in 2005 that included hacking "primarily in first strikes against enemy networks."^[7] However, experts have said that China is home to a large number of insecure computers and networks that hackers in other countries could use to disguise their locations and launch attacks, so there is really no way to tell who is breaking into these computer networks.^[8]

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^[1] Anita Chang, China Denies Hacking Pentagon Computers, Associated Press Newswire, September 4, 2007, available at available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Demetri Sevastopulo and Richard McGregor, Financial Times, Chinese military hacked into Pentagon, September 3 2007, available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9dba9ba2-5a3b-11dc-9bcd-0000779fd2ac.html (last visited September 4, 2007).
^[3] Chang, supra note 1.
^[4] Sevastopulo and McGregor, supra note 2
^[5] Chang, supra note 1.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.