Congressmen Victims of China's Hackers

In a press conference held on June 11, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf has made public that his office computers were hacked in August 2006 and that the FBI and other officials informed him that the attack came from inside China. Rep. Christopher Smith, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is also active in human rights affairs, said his computer had been attacked from inside China.

"They got everything," Wolf said at a news briefing. The computers in his office were being used by staff members working on human rights issues, which includes the names of dissidents, access to e-mail correspondence between his office and human rights groups and records from over 24 congressional hearings on human rights abuses.

He reported that after one of the attacks, a car with Chinese officials plates went to the home of a Chinese dissident in the United States and photographed it.

Wolf has urged President Bush to stay away from the Summer Olympics while Smith has introduced legislation to bar U.S. technology firms from cooperating with countries such as China, due to their banning of information about human rights and democracy on the Internet.

The two lawmakers said at a news conference the computers of other members and at least one committee have also been compromised.

Wolf declared that he knew that the hacking was going on and that officials within the United States government had advised him to refrain from going public, "The problem has been that no one wants to talk about this issue. Every time I've started to do something I've been told 'You can't do this.' A lot of people have made it very, very difficult."

Obviously, he has now decided to speak out.

On June 11, 2008, Rep. Wolf introduced a privileged resolution on the House floor calling for greater protection of congressional computer and information systems.

It began in this manner:

"Madam Speaker, in August 2006, four of the computers in my personal office were compromised by an outside source. This source first hacked into the computer of my foreign policy and human rights staff person, then the computers of my chief of staff, my legislative director, and my judiciary staff person. On these computers was information about all of the casework I have done on behalf of political dissidents and human rights activists around the world. That kind of information, as well as everything else on my office computers - e-mails, memos, correspondence and district casework - was open for outside eyes to see.

I am aware that computers in the offices of several other Members were similarly compromised, as well as a major committee of the House -- the Foreign Affairs Committee. It is logical to assume that critical and sensitive information about U.S. foreign policy and the work of Congress to help people who are suffering around the world was also open to view from these official computers.

In subsequent meetings with House Information Resources and FBI officials, it was revealed that the outside sources responsible for this attack came from within the People's Republic of China. These cyber attacks permitted the source to probe our computers to evaluate our system's defenses, and to view and copy information. My suspicion is that I was targeted by Chinese sources because of my long history of speaking out about China's abysmal human rights record."

The following day came the Chinese regime’s truly incredible defense: "... China is still a developing country. Does that mean we have already mastered such high-end technology? Personally I' don't believe that." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news conference in Beijing.

He further stated, in accordance to the usual procedure of organizing as many accusations against their victims as possible, "I'd like to advise some people in the U.S. not to be overly suspicious and not to make sensational remarks all the time. They should rather do more things that help China-U.S. friendship and understanding."

You can read the full text of Rep. Wolf's address at:
http://wolf.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=34&parentid=6§iontree=6,34&itemid=1174

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061102790.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hackers12-2008jun12,0,6818200.story
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4D9t60-W8j66NYZaBwez4_gq7mwD917V7AO0
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1138948520
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