Live data from Hacker News

China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

bloomberg.com

51–60 of 63 posts

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#51

I worked, long ago, at the group in QinetiQ that got hacked. A couple of observations: 1. The Talon project (the robot pictured) is not, in fact, super secret. I worked with the Talon platform, and while my projects were "confidential", it wasn't some super secret thing. Would the government rather not have the Chinese have that IP? Of course. Is it at a security disaster? Hardly. That's not to say that they didn't h…

As someone already pointed out above this smells like a PR piece for a new 'cyber-security' enhancement project (read: hand-out) and/or legislation.

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#52

I grow weary of reading these "hacking," "cyberspy," etc articles. They always read like a plot of a bad action movie (Hackers, Swordfish, etc) rather than what people who actually work in the sector (IT, Security, even programming) have to deal with day to day. Just once, I'd love to read an article that talks in specifics, like how they got in (e.g. via exploit XYZ), how they spread (e.g. via hole in network policy…

There are many levels of 'secrets.' The really secret stuff never even touches a networked device and is only seen in underground meeting rooms built like vaults. Think the computer room with the touch sensitive floor in Mission Impossible.

The real secrets are secure, but no guarantees on the Kernel's Chicken recipe.

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#53

I grow weary of reading these "hacking," "cyberspy," etc articles. They always read like a plot of a bad action movie (Hackers, Swordfish, etc) rather than what people who actually work in the sector (IT, Security, even programming) have to deal with day to day. Just once, I'd love to read an article that talks in specifics, like how they got in (e.g. via exploit XYZ), how they spread (e.g. via hole in network policy…

[deleted]

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#54
Aren't there any active packet-inspection devices out there (Palo Alto?) that can detect this kind of stuff?

  * Joe's working from home, but logged in? Disconnect!
  * Joe's transfered 80GB today when he normally does 2GB? Disconnect!
  * Joe's connecting from a VPN server in Croatia? Disconnect!

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#55
post #26

I find it surprising that it would seem that the only country on the face of this planet hacking foreign countries and business are Chinese. I'm so pleased that no one in the US, UK, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Japan, Canada, etc would clearly never dream of such things. On top of that, I cant even begin to imagine why countries other than the US would seek intelligence to help them in defence. Goo…

Ha, what I heard is that the Chinese are the only ones who get caught.

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#56
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, does anyone of you reading this here ever use the word 'cyber'?

I do. Cyberman, Cyberleader, Cyberweapon, Cybermat - all integral components of my lexicon.

s/my lexicon/Whovian[1] culture/

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_fandom

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#57
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So now we no why the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is so far over budget. The Chinese tweaked the plans so when they tried building the thing nothing would fit.

Ah the metric system could have caused that.

The metric system is a group of measures that was poorly thought out and people using said system cannot built fighter jet parts that fit together?

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

china is basically doing exactly what the US did to come to economic power and people are shocked, shocked! to see it. people really, truly, honesty believe the last 200 years of US and European ascent didn't happen, as if the world sprang forth fully formed in 1997. the vast majority of people haven't spent 5 minutes really thinking about how this stuff works. a lot of this double-standard is inextricably tied to ra…

Who did the US steal the transistor, cell phone, modern operating system, microprocessor, router and Internet from? Did the US steal all the oil in Titusville (which instigated a massive economic boom) from Britain? How about all the chemistry work and exploration work that the US did to make oil useful and plentiful? Standard Oil had one of the most advanced R&D labs on the planet. I guess all the advanced technolog…

There were a lot of important things invented before cell phones and operating systems, like starting from the wheel and the fire, you know? What we call USA today grew on immigration, isn't this speak for itself? But why am I talking generics when some of my engineering teachers (the young ones) left for USA even in my university study years! The qualified people, the ones that takes a lot of time and resource to train - taken! Could be here all night? Really?

P.S.: BTW, the knowledge on which transistor relies did NOT occurred in USA, and networks similar to USA's ARPANET were developed in other countries in the same period, so the fact that Internet has an USA origin is purely incidental ...something that may be true for a lot of other things.

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#59

I grow weary of reading these "hacking," "cyberspy," etc articles. They always read like a plot of a bad action movie (Hackers, Swordfish, etc) rather than what people who actually work in the sector (IT, Security, even programming) have to deal with day to day. Just once, I'd love to read an article that talks in specifics, like how they got in (e.g. via exploit XYZ), how they spread (e.g. via hole in network policy…

There are many levels of 'secrets.' The really secret stuff never even touches a networked device and is only seen in underground meeting rooms built like vaults. Think the computer room with the touch sensitive floor in Mission Impossible. The real secrets are secure, but no guarantees on the Kernel's Chicken recipe.

>Kernel's Chicken recipe.

Now that is a fast food restaurant I'd like to visit.

Re: China Cyberspies Outwit U.S. Stealing Military Secrets

#60
It's foolish to either ignore this stuff or to panic. Learn your lessons and continue developing technology. We'll starve in the streets before the government stops trying to develop another billion-dollar superweapon. Even if the Chinese didn't have good hackers, they could do as the Russians used to do and turn Americans into spies with offers of money and sex. That said, China has a major social flaw that has persisted throughout its' history -- success can be just as fatal as failure. Any wagers as to how long Comment Crew will continue to operate before they turn on their government or are snuffed out pre-emptively?
Post reply on HN