WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee on Tuesday accused China of widespread cyber economic espionage and said many U.S. firms were afraid to come forward for fear their computers would be the targets of even more attacks.
“China’s economic espionage has reached an intolerable level and I believe that the United States and our allies in Europe and Asia have an obligation to confront Beijing and demand that they put a stop to this piracy,” Republican Representative Mike Rogers said at a committee hearing on cybersecurity.
“Beijing is waging a massive trade war on us all, and we should band together to pressure them to stop,” he said.
Internet giant Google partially pulled out of China last year after concerns of censorship and a hacking episode that it said originated from China.
Rogers said companies like Google that reported cyber attacks were “just the tip of the iceberg.”
“There are more companies that have been hit that won’t talk about it in the press, for fear of provoking further Chinese attacks,” he said.
Behind closed doors, however, companies describe attacks that originate in China, he said.
While U.S. officials and firms point the finger at China for many cyber attacks, China says it is one of the world’s biggest victims of hacking.
“Attributing this espionage isn’t easy, but talk to any private sector cyber analyst, and they will tell you there is little doubt that this is a massive campaign being conducted by the Chinese government,” Rogers said.
(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Xavier Briand)
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Seven months before the presidential election, Sarkozy, who once promised to be Mr Squeaky Clean of French politics, has seen his close circle come under pressure in a series of corruption investigations whose plots thicken by the day. Investigators are untangling a web of scandals involving alleged illegal party-funding with banknotes variously stuffed into bags, briefcases and brown envelopes, as well as phone interceptions.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A prosecutor says a Taiwanese political science professor has been detained for providing data on visiting Chinese activists to Beijing.
Huang Mou-hsin says Wu Chang-yu of Central Police University was detained Friday pending filing of formal charges.
Taiwan’s United Daily News quoted unidentified sources as saying Wu frequently visited China to lecture on fortunetelling — his other specialty. It says Chinese officials offered him fortunetelling businesses in exchange for spying on the Taiwan activities of selected Chinese. None of the alleged targets were named.
Taiwan and China continue to spy on each other despite a recent improvement in their relationship amid growing economic ties. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
A Tredyffrin Township man has been accused of cyber spying on his estranged wife.
Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, was charged Monday night with unlawful use of a computer and related offenses. He allegedly installed “Web Watcher,” a spyware package, on the woman’s computer, Tredyffrin Township police said.
“As far as I’m concerned, he was really behaving like a stalker,” Sgt. John R. Bailey said. “He violated her trust and her privacy. . . . It seemed like a big chess game to him.”
Police said the investigation began a year ago when the woman, who was in the midst of divorce proceedings with Ciccarone, contacted police because Ciccarone appeared to be monitoring her daily activities.
A forensic examination of the woman’s computer revealed the presence of the spying program, which “works by recording all manner of activity on the computer, including keystroke logging, capturing e-mail and Internet activity,” the criminal complaint said.
The complaint said the program “is designed to be completely ‘stealthed,’ meaning it is automatically hidden from everyone except the people authorized to see it.”
This month, investigators received confirmation from Awareness Technologies, a California company that sells the program, that the software had been purchased by Ciccarone, the complaint said.
Ciccarone, who previously worked in sales for Philly.com, was arraigned Monday night in District Court and released after posting $75,000 cash bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Ciccarone filed for divorce in April 2010, a proceeding that has not yet been finalized, according to court records.
Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-696-3815, kbrady [at] phillynews [dot] com, or @brandywinebits on Twitter. Read her blog, “Chester County Inbox,” at www.philly.com/chescoinbox.
