Inside the Ring: Chinese tried to hack NSA using U.S. defense contractor ws/2014/oct/15/inside-the-ring-chinese-tried-to-hack-nsa-using-us/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_reader=feedly
Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies sought to gain access to National Security Agencycomputer networks this year in a failed cyberespionage attack, U.S. officials said. The company, which the U.S. government has linked to China’s military, sought to penetrate NSA networks through a U.S. defense contractor, officials familiar with intelligence reports said of the attempted cyberattack. The attempted network penetration was discussed in mid-August during a meeting of an interagency security group called G-FIRST, for Government Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams. The identity of the defense contractor could not be learned. A Department of Homeland Security official declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing defense contractor issues. He referred questions to the Pentagon. The Homeland Security Department coordinates the G-FIRST group. NSA spokesman Mike Halbig said: “We have nothing for you on this allegation.” “While Huawei is challenged to respond to The Washington Times’ vague inquiry, the suggestion that a globally-proven and trusted $40 billion vender of commercial telecommunications gear would risk its very existence by attempting, in some unspecified fashion, to somehow ‘access’ a government network through some unidentified third party, would seem nothing short of absurd,” Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer told Inside the Ring in a statement. The National Security Agency is the government’s premier cyberwarfare and cyberintelligence-gathering agency, and analysts say it is one of the highest priority targets for China’s aggressive cyberespionage efforts. The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on the Chinese military stated in 2010 that Huawei and two other Chinese telecommunications companies “maintain close ties to the [People’s Liberation Army] and collaborate on R&D.” The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence warned in a 2012 report that the U.S. government and private U.S. companies should not use Huawei equipment because of cyberespionage concerns. Disclosure of the Huawei cyberpenetration attempt follows the release of NSA documents leaked by renegade contractor Edward Snowden revealing that the agency conducted cyberespionage operations against Huawei. Briefing slides labeled “top-secret” and made public in March showed that the NSA has been able to exploit weaknesses in Huawei computer equipment to spy on so-called hard-target countries, including China, Pakistan and Iran. “Many of our targets communicate over Huawei produced products. We want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products — we also want to ensure that we retain access to these communication lines, etc.,” one NSA slide states. The slide also noted that Huawei’s widespread infrastructure “will provide the PRC with [signals intelligence] capabilities and enable them to perform denial of service type attacks.” U.S. officials also said the Commerce Department is investigating accusations that Huawei provided U.S.-origin modems, routers and other network equipment to Cuba in violation of U.S. sanctions on the communist-ruled island state. __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcWxna20zBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTM0NzY3MDA-> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNXV1MTViBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQxMzQ3NjcwMA--> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
