
Researchers identify command servers behind Google attack - tvon
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/01/researchers-identify-command-servers-behind-google-attack.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss#
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nfnaaron
"Citing sources in the defense contracting and intelligence consulting
community, the iDefense report unambiguously declares that the Chinese
government was, in fact, behind the effort."

OK, good. It's not yet been proved in court, but at least it allows us, in
further discussion, to comfortably assume that it was in fact China.

Some time soon I'd like to see: an end to end trace of the attack, identifying
computers, their physical locations and ownership/control; a broad and
coherent description of the of the crime itself, including how they first got
in and how they operated while in; and a description of what was taken or
changed. I'd like the analysis to be unusually forthcoming and direct.

This is not to force the Chinese govt to fess up. They know they did it, they
know we know, and they'll deny it forever, even if we find a picture of the
chief general of the PLA crouching over the disemboweled corpse with blood
dripping from his teeth and a deer-in-headlights expression.

This is for US citizens and the rest of the world to see unambiguously what
the Chinese have done and how much effort they put into it, and the cost. As
such I'd like to see it first in a popular magazine, maybe a special edition.
After that I'd like to see the same information dragged back and forth in
Congressional hearings.

It's one thing to vaguely assume in some sort of hip, jaded way that "of
course the Chinese are spying on us." It's quite another thing to see the (I
assume) enormous extent and effect of what they're actually doing.

"The servers used in both attacks ... are currently pointing to IP addresses
owned by Linode, a US-based company that offers Virtual Private Server
hosting. ... "Considering this proximity, it is possible that the two attacks
are one and the same, and that the organizations targeted in the Silicon
Valley attacks have been compromised since July."

If the report's findings are correct, it suggests that the government of China
has been engaged for months in a massive campaign of industrial espionage
against US companies."

 _SON_ of a ...

