Computer System Under Attack!

[American Patriot]

Computer System Under Attack: Commerce Department Targeted; Hackers Traced to China
The Washington Post ^ | October 6, 2006 | Alan Sipress

Hackers operating through Chinese Internet servers have launched a debilitating attack on the computer system of a sensitive Commerce Department bureau, forcing it to replace hundreds of workstations and block employees from regular use of the Internet for more than a month, Commerce officials said yesterday.


The attack targeted the computers of the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is responsible for controlling U.S. exports of commodities, software and technology having both commercial and military uses. The bureau has stepped up its activity in regulating trade with China in recent years as the United States increased its exports of such dual-use items to the growing Chinese market.


This marked the second time in recent months that U.S. officials confirmed that a major attack traced to China had succeeded in penetrating government computers.


"Through established security procedures, BIS discovered a targeted effort to gain access to BIS user accounts," said Commerce Department spokesman Richard Mills. "We have no evidence that BIS data has been lost or compromised."


The significance of the attacks was underscored in a series of e-mails sent to BIS employees by acting Undersecretary of Commerce Mark Foulon since July, informing them of "a number of serious threats to the integrity of our systems and data."


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

[Ryan Ruck]

forcing it to replace hundreds of workstations

Hmm... I wonder if these were IBM/Lenovo workstations with either a backdoor installed on purpose by Lenovo or a backdoor installed by IBM getting discovered (perhaps through industrial espionage because of Lenovo's takeover of IBM's PC division).