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Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#51

Post by yzzxy »

roylez wrote: post #34
freehunter wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do you know Beijing has a serious smog issue which was first uncovered by American embassy in Beijing? So no one in the Chinese government or citizens had noticed that they can't see across the street until the Americans mentioned it?

People could see the smog for sure, but official forecast would report nothing unusual or indicating the hazard to people's lives. It was till Americans embassy spoke it out that the majority realised we breathe highly polluted air.

The official forecast in China is presumably controlled by the government. That's what makes it "official". You can't possibly argue that because the US is not publicly shaming the Chinese government into release accurate heath-relevant information to its citizens, that that same government has the right to hack US systems to determine weather information. If that is actually what occurred.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#52

Post by owenmarshall »

cryptoz wrote: post #3

The article does not discuss much the motivation they might have had for this hack, aside from the fact they're probably looking for gaps in general US systems. But I'm very curious about the economics of hacking another nation's weather service; China could give itself significant (and creepy) economic advantages my MITMing the data from the satellites. I wonder if they're considering things like this? Edit: Also, i…

> The article does not discuss much the motivation they might have had for this hack, aside from the fact they're probably looking for gaps in general US systems.

NOAA is a branch of the US Department of Commerce - it's likely that is a relatively interesting target. And the NWS probably has data feeds that are based on non-publicly available information: maybe they've got some military satellite feeds out there. Who knows.

But in reality I'd bet this was just a "cast many lines, see what we catch" operation. And most people probably discounted the risks of Chinese attacks against the weather service. I'd further bet that there are plenty of lesser-known government organizations out there that are being actively exploited right now.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#54

Post by lawnchair_larry »

Someone1234 wrote: post #13

I always appreciate how the US are able to pin every network compromise directly back to China. And not just China but the Chinese government in particular. Almost like VPNs, proxies, TOR, compromised machines, botnets, or similar do not exist in this arena and that a reverse DNS lookup will tell them 1337.mss.gov.cn. When the US talk about cybersecurity/"cyber wars" in general they're talking about something more ak…

Rest assured, they have better methods of attribution than a reverse DNS lookup. It's difficult to attribute a specific attack, but relatively easy to attribute large campaigns.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#55

Post by lawnchair_larry »

netheril96 wrote: post #50
state wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These articles always make me wish I could see the Chinese equivalent. Are the newspapers in Beijing just full of stories about US "cyber attacks" on Chinese infrastructure?

No. There are plenty of articles in China about how an evil empire the US is, but mostly on how it misuses its military, financial and cultural power, how it instigates unrest in other countries, how its democracy is a fake one, etc. Seldom if any mentions US hacking.

I would love to read this. How do you know? Are you Chinese?

I find it weird how in a world this connected, we still only get one POV.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#56

Post by lawnchair_larry »

owenmarshall wrote: post #52
cryptoz wrote: post #3

The article does not discuss much the motivation they might have had for this hack, aside from the fact they're probably looking for gaps in general US systems. But I'm very curious about the economics of hacking another nation's weather service; China could give itself significant (and creepy) economic advantages my MITMing the data from the satellites. I wonder if they're considering things like this? Edit: Also, i…

> The article does not discuss much the motivation they might have had for this hack, aside from the fact they're probably looking for gaps in general US systems. NOAA is a branch of the US Department of Commerce - it's likely that is a relatively interesting target. And the NWS probably has data feeds that are based on non-publicly available information: maybe they've got some military satellite feeds out there. Who…

Yes, this is the most probable; see https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Sv8IHkBtBEXjSW7WktEY...

Slides 12-25 in particular.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#57

Post by mknits »

roylez wrote: post #30

As a Chinese I would prefer to believe our government is behind this. Do you know Beijing (or even the whole country) has a serious smog issue which was first uncovered by American embassy in Beijing? The incident makes the government lose their trust in public, and for quite some time people only want to trust forecast from NOAA in stead of Beijing. If Chinese government hacked NOAA, it would be out of their intenti…

Don't Chinese citizens dream of making their country a two-party or multiparty democracy like US or India, respectively?

This one-party autocratic rule will one day make people insane.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#58

Post by Xdes »

mknits wrote: post #57
roylez wrote: post #30

As a Chinese I would prefer to believe our government is behind this. Do you know Beijing (or even the whole country) has a serious smog issue which was first uncovered by American embassy in Beijing? The incident makes the government lose their trust in public, and for quite some time people only want to trust forecast from NOAA in stead of Beijing. If Chinese government hacked NOAA, it would be out of their intenti…

Don't Chinese citizens dream of making their country a two-party or multiparty democracy like US or India, respectively? This one-party autocratic rule will one day make people insane.

What is Communism?

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#59

Post by NeverEnough »

Zikes wrote: post #11

http://i.imgur.com/sovN9Gp.jpg Is it just me, or is this apparently the reaction every time a US government or military system gets hacked by China? "Yep, we got hacked again. But we're just going to do our best to minimize the damage and pretend it never happened. No meaningful action will be taken against the perpetrators."

yeah just like when it came out that the NSA was reading the emails of Germany's prime minister.

Re: Chinese hack U.S. Weather systems, satellite network

#60

Post by gohrt »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #55
netheril96 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. There are plenty of articles in China about how an evil empire the US is, but mostly on how it misuses its military, financial and cultural power, how it instigates unrest in other countries, how its democracy is a fake one, etc. Seldom if any mentions US hacking.

I would love to read this. How do you know? Are you Chinese? I find it weird how in a world this connected, we still only get one POV.

http://rt.com (Russian goverment POV)
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