Some security experts from the United States have revealed details about a Chinese hacker group believed to have launched numerous attacks on U.S. government agencies to collect intelligence.
These experts believe that this Chinese hacker group is based in Guangdong and has a particular interest in gathering information related to U.S. military technology, especially in the fields of aviation, aerospace, and pilot training software. U.S. security officials have named this hacker group “Titan Rain”.
On November 24, Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity research organization, officially stated: “These attackers have breached the computers of the U.S. Air Force Command and the Strategic Missile Command to steal a specialized flight training system for military pilots.” Paller estimates that the Titan Rain hacker group consists of about 20 individuals.
The Titan Rain hacker group was officially mentioned by British-American security experts last summer when the Washington Post published an article warning about websites originating from China being used to attack the U.S. Department of Defense and various other government agencies. Shortly thereafter, Time magazine also published an article by American cybersecurity expert Shawn Carpenter discussing the infiltration activities of the Titan Rain group.
Paller detailed a specific incident of an infiltration into U.S. government computers, which likely yielded some results from the Titan Rain group’s activities between the night of November 1, 2004, and the early morning of November 2, 2004.
– At 10:23 PM on November 1, 2004, Titan Rain hackers exploited several security flaws to breach the computer systems of the U.S. Army’s Information Technology Engineering Center in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
– At 1:19 AM on November 2, 2004, the Titan Rain group discovered a similar security vulnerability to infiltrate the computer systems of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Information Bureau.
– By 3:25 AM, the group shifted their attacks to the U.S. Navy’s Ocean Surveillance Center in San Diego, California.
– At 4:46 AM, the group moved on to attack the computer systems of the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Command in Huntsville, Alabama.
Roger Cummings, director of the UK’s National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre, also reported that military and government agencies in the UK are being meticulously targeted by hackers from several countries in the Far East through sophisticated attacks. With a more “diplomatic” approach than his American counterparts, Roger Cummings did not name any specific countries involved in these attacks.
HOÀNG KIM ANH
