Pa. Government Website Compromised By Chinese Hackers

Early morning on Friday, January 4, 2008, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government website was infected with a computer virus.  In order to prevent the spread of the computer virus, system administrators began a coordinated effort to shutdown other commonwealth agency websites in order to prevent the spread of the computer virus infection.  System administrators and IT security staff were able to preliminary identify the source of the data breach--a domain name registered in China.

The fact that this attack may have originated in China is not surprising.   As early as 2006, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), a U.S. Congressional Commission, warned about China's cyber threat capabilities.  According to the 2006 USCC annual report (http://www.uscc.gov/annual_report/2006/chapter3_sec1.pdf), China is creating military information warfare units and shifting its cyberwarefare to become offensive in an effort to disrupt enemy networks and information systems.

The U.S. Government is not alone in its assessment that China poses a major threat in terms of cyberwarefare capabilities.  Recently the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security service, MI5, warned that China is sponsoring cyber espionage against key industries in the British economy.

When nations with unlimited resources, like China, decide to integrate cyberwarefare capabilities into their military forces, this fact should cause both private industry and governments around the world to take notice and rethink their views about cyber security.  In the next few years, we will see that state sponsored cyberwarefare will increasingly become a major threat of national security importance.  In order to effectively counter this threat, there must be better cooperation and research between private industry and government.

State Web sites back after hack attack
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5web.6214422jan05,0,2068262.story

Hackers Force Pa. to Shut State Web Site
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGKgY3SpKw7_p7A8MGHpTfSpN8mAD8TVE5SG0