Must Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Topic: Google

Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

Summary: A Chinese military propaganda video appears to show hacking software targeting U.S. IP addresses.

Zack Whittaker

By for iGeneration |

A Chinese military propaganda video may have let slip something the West has suspected for a long time: that China is attacking U.S. targets electronically.

Whilst the Chinese government denies any links to cyber-attacks or hacking U.S. targets, proof appears to have emerged in form of a military propaganda video dating back to mid-July of this year.

Only lasting six-seconds, the screen shows software developed by the Electrical Engineering University of China's People's Liberation Army -- the military of China's ruling party -- attacking a website using an IP address belonging to the University of Alabama.

The custom-built software show the name of the Chinese military university which developed the software, providing a high-level of proof that the Chinese government are either sponsoring, or directly involved in electronically attacking targets around the world.

According to one report, the software is shown to point an attack towards the main website of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, by using a "compromised IP address" belonging to the University of Alabama.

University of Alabama administrators said that safeguards are in place against intrusions, and that their "networks are not compromised".

The screenshot above is titled: "Choose Attack Target". From the drop-down menu, the user can select a number of Falun Gong websites, with the footage showing the user picking minghui.org -- the main website of the Falun Gong.

The bottom-left button translates to: "Attack", just as the camera pans away.

According to F-Secure, the text reads as following:

People's Liberation Army Information Engineering University

Select Attack Destinations

Target IP

List of Falung Gong sites

Falun Dafa in North America Falun Dafa website Meng Hui website Witnesses of Falun Gong website 1 Witnesses of Falun Gong website 2

ATTACK CANCEL

Footage of the attack can be seen on YouTube.

Earlier this month, U.S. government officials began an investigation into the intrusion of hundreds of government-operated Gmail accounts. China rebutted the claims, stating it was "irresponsible" to blame Bejing.

In the Wikileaks diplomatic cables release, however, many pointed fingers at "senior Chinese figures" were behind the hacks at Google, where by Google said goodbye to the company altogether -- pulling out its staff and offices.

Related content:

Topics: Google, Security, China

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

26 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • This is the sort of mistake...

    ...that gives diplomats ulcers. But maybe the exposure will make the Chinese a little more cautious.
    John L. Ries
    Reply Vote

    • Yes.

      @John L. Ries - We want the Chinese, our unsaid enemy, to be more cautious. o_O
      People
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

    And they probably just have to check for Falun Gong support on all US industrial and military networks. Simple explanation.
    ejhonda
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

    How do you say "DERP!" in Chinese?
    jmwells21
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

    Chinese are evil folks. We better be leader on this planet rather than China, because China's intentions are only EVIL. They support Pakistan, they oppose India, they looted Tibet and called it a part of their country, they included a part of India in their map, which was discovered during Commonwealth Games in India early this year, they don't like US, neither are they friends with European countries. No religious bias, but this is what I have seen over a period of time. I hate China.
    animageofmine1
    Reply Vote

    • You need to get out more..... like get a life!

      @animageofmine1 @ if the japanese had the power over the USA that the Chinese do now the entire USA would be a slave nation. They would have crashed our economy the moment they could. The Chinese are business men not arrogant dictators like the japanese.
      Reality Bites
      Reply Vote

      • What are you smoking????

        @Reality Bites - Huh???? Check your history. Prior to the Chinese being the one single country holding the most U.S. debt (and it's still just a fraction), our greatest lender was Japan. I don't recall being enslaved. Then their economy went to crap, and China stepped in. The Japanese politicians are businessmen, the Chinese government are oppressive dictatorial communists, and they really DO have slave labor in their factories. There are no such slave labor factories in Japan. You have it exactly backwards, my friend. Are you in China? Work for the government there?
        omb00900@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

        @Reality Bites I think, omb00900@ answered your question :-). You need to check the history and facts. I am having a hard time finding any good news from China. The government who supports terrorism(Pakistan) can't be good, neither can it have good intensions (did you ever hear a major terrorist attack in China ?). Please do read stories about Tibet, they are being treated as slaves by China. With regards to technology, they are smart, there is no question about that, but again, they are just misusing it as indicated in this article.
        Come on man, instead of me, you need to get out and look at the bigger picture and the world.
        animageofmine1
        Reply Vote

    • The Chinese Government are evil folks

      @animageofmine1 - I think most of the Chinese citizenry is well aware that their oppressive government is evil. You just can't say "Chinese are evil folks" without being a bigot.
      omb00900@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

        @omb00900@... Right, I should not have such a generalized statement, but everytime I give myself a chance to change my outlook towards them, they hit me hard with something bad. Few recent ones being: Google hacking, access to chopper in Osama's compound and implicit to mention, this article. I like what Eric Schmidt told recently: "We tell the Chinese what we know ... and then they publicly deny their role. That's all I have to say about that"
        animageofmine1
        Reply Vote

    • Not in general

      @animageofmine1

      As far as my experience goes, Chinese in general are no better or worse than any other nation. Any quarrel we have is with their rulers, not the general citizenry. Leninism is an evil system, no matter what economic doctrines it espouses.
      John L. Ries
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

      @animageofmine1
      I am sorry man but have you EVER been to China ? You speak like somebody who has no real clue about this country. You are wrong in 90% of your aspects. Chinese actually COPY US, they envie US, they are curious about US and they admire US. This country is so big - they do not care too much about what is outside - in their 3000 years history you won't find China invading any OTHER country. BUT others (England, France, Germany, Japan and so forth) tried to invade THEM.
      If you go to Wikipedia you will learn yourself that actually China belonged to TIBET and not the other way round. You can also find (if you want to know this) evidence that most Tibetian people DISLIKE the Dalai Lama - sorry - i was in Tibet and was first shocked to hear TIBETIAN's talk like this.
      China has 53 minorities of which 3 are unhappy (The Ugures, a small tribe in the north, and if you want to add Tibet for the sake of it), I would like to see us in the west to respect minorities in the same way. I have been in this country and judge by what i See in real life and not what I read in the media or been told by so called News Channels. If you would encounter people of china (normal people) you would be amazed how friendly they are and not hostile at all. No need to hate them. They are like you and me, believe me.
      kolarandreas@...
      Reply Vote

  • This report is irresponsible

    Maybe I will write an app, name it North Korea University, then add a drop down menu that reads "BurgerKing.com" with a button at the bottom that says "Attack". Then it will be official and and a fact::::The North Koreans are attacking Burger King! Oh, then I'll circulate it on youtube; that'll validate it!

    Show me a .pcap file referencing the domains and IP addresses/domains mentioned in this report, then maybe....maybe, I'll stop being a skeptic. Wait....then again....who says the addresses can't be spoofed in the .pcap capture!
    News_Media_Skeptic
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Chinese documentary shows military university attacking U.S. targets

      @News_Media_Skeptic looks like you are from China, hence defending it. Don't you think these details were revealed after thorough investigation before claiming ? Everything would not be disclosed by govt. We have seen Google suffering about the same multiple times. Not everyone can be wrong. Accept it, its China only.
      animageofmine1
      Reply Vote

  • Let's just call it even

    We (the US) owe China a couple of trillion dollars, right? Considering what they have stolen from us, why don't we just call it even and consider our debt paid in full.
    itpro_z
    Reply Vote

    • Most of our debt is not to China, so how do we pay that

      bigger portion that is not owed to China?
      adornoe
      Reply Vote

  • Having watched the YouTube clip,

    my reaction is that the Chinese are about as worried about US cyberwarfare capabilities as the US is worried about Chinese ditto. Given the well-documented tendency of the US government to settle disputes with the use of force or the threat of the use of force, I suggest that the Chinese, with a technological infrastructure far inferior to that of the US (albeit getting better all the time), have good reason to be worried and to keep the technological equivalents of their powder dry....

    Henri
    mhenriday
    Reply Vote

    • You imply competancy on the part of the USA Gov IT dept? HA HA HA!

      @mhenriday @ these are the morons that couldn't even put an admin password on 1000's of computers.

      The USA gov IT is run by droolers and crooks.
      Reality Bites
      Reply Vote

  • Have the company declared a terrorist organization.

    Then if one of the employee's ever steps foot outside china arrest them turn them over to the interrogators with the big water bill.
    Reality Bites
    Reply Vote

  • Minot grammatical nitpick

    "China refuted the claims..."

    ITYM "rebutted", or perhaps simply "denied" ... to "refute" is to disprove, not to deny.
    fairportfan
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close