From:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20008321179.htm
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 3, 2000
Hackers linked to China stole Los Alamos documents
By Bill Gertz
Hackers suspected of working for a Chinese government
institute in Beijing broke into a computer system at Los Alamos
National Laboratory and pilfered large amounts of sensitive
information, including documents containing the word "nuclear,"
The Washington Times has learned.
The incident involving sensitive but unclassified data was
uncovered by a National Security Agency computer analyst early
last year but kept secret until now, said U.S. intelligence
officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"They [the Chinese] obtained the equivalent of a stack of
documents 3 feet high," one official said.
Officials said the case highlights the fact that foreign
governments continue to seek U.S. nuclear weapons information.
They said it is a clear example of Chinese government-sponsored
computer spying techniques, which Beijing's military has
cultivated for several years.
Disclosure of the incident is the latest example of
Beijing's covert efforts to obtain U.S. nuclear secrets.
Fired Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee is awaiting trial on
charges he mishandled sensitive nuclear weapons secrets. His
arrest grew out of a major investigation that revealed China had
obtained secrets on every deployed warhead in the U.S. nuclear
arsenal.
Officials said the Chinese hackers disguised their attack by
entering a Los Alamos "file transfer protocol" site, or FTP, on
the Internet through several computer system gateways at U.S.
universities. Such FTP sites often are used to store information.
The incident took place in late 1998 or early last year, the
officials said.
Using electronic tracing techniques developed by the
National Security Agency, the analyst tracked the intruder back
to a research institute in Beijing. Under China's communist
system, all research institutes are part of the government and
have been used in the past for spying activities.
The officials did not provide further details or identify
the Chinese institute.
Sensitive, but not secret, data stored on Los Alamos
computers until recently included information dubbed
"unclassified," "controlled nuclear information," "official use
only," "naval nuclear propulsion information," "export controlled
information" and "corporate proprietary data."
A counterintelligence official said that, in general,
computer-based information lost to foreign spies from Department
of Energy facilities, including Los Alamos, has been extremely
valuable to foreign weapons programs.
The data helped foreign governments save time and money on
their nuclear weapons programs while undermining U.S. national
security and economic competitiveness, the official said.
China is one of the most aggressive foreign powers seeking
to glean data on nuclear weapons via computer from U.S. weapons
laboratories, the official said. The Chinese are known to use
several forms of computer attacks to gain access to the
information.
Chinese spies also have targeted Los Alamos for documents
related to verifying compliance with arms control agreements,
including the START arms pact and a chemical weapons agreement.
Intelligence officials said Chinese research institutes made
nearly 50 attempts to obtain two documents during the late 1990s.
In a 1996 case, Army Pvt. Eric Jenott passed information on
Pentagon computer systems to a Chinese national working at the
Energy Department's Oak Ridge facility. He was convicted of
computer fraud.
In another case, a Chinese scientist working at the
Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., was caught
sending technical notes to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a
government entity in charge of weapons development programs.
A recent report to Congress on Chinese spying, produced
jointly by the FBI and CIA, made no mention of the covert
computer attack. The report said the Chinese gather science and
technology information through U.S. national laboratories and
acquire "highly valued, yet unclassified information."
National Security Agency spokesman Fred Lash declined to
comment on the agency's role in tracking the Chinese computer
attack.
However, Los Alamos spokesman Jim Danneskiold said the
laboratory was under widespread computer attack during the time
in question, although security officials have no record of a
specific incident involving Chinese downloading information from
an FTP site.
"Certainly there were massive attacks around that time as
part of Moonlight Maze," Mr. Danneskiold said, using the Pentagon
code name for a series of worldwide computer assaults, primarily
against Defense Department computers.
Mr. Danneskiold suggested that the Chinese intrusion in
question might not have been detected because security officials
at Los Alamos were in the process of installing a security "fire
wall" system designed to keep out unauthorized computer
intruders.
There is "an enormous amount of Chinese activity hitting our
green, open sites," Mr. Danneskiold said. "We're talking Web
hits, and it happens continuously."
The computer systems at the laboratory were partitioned
during the period in question by creating a "green" system for
open access to all Internet users, a limited-entry "yellow" site
for remote access to sensitive but unclassified information and a
classified "red" system closed to unauthorized users.
"Yeah, sure, people have gotten into the unclassified
system," Mr. Danneskiold said. "Our unclassified site has been
hacked."
During one 10-month period in the late 1990s, officials
said, intelligence agencies recorded 792 computer security
incidents, including 324 attacks from outside the United States.
The attacks included efforts to gain password files, probes
of computer defenses and scans of system vulnerabilities to
intrusion.
Several computer systems have been compromised by intruders
who gained "root" access to Energy Department computer systems.
Such access allows hackers to gain complete access and total
control over computer systems that permit them to see all
information on the systems, the officials said.
Many of the attacks are from foreign intelligence services
seeking restricted nuclear information or other sensitive
material, particularly on science and technology.
copyright © 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
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