04/27 16:54
Computer Hackers in China May Target U.S. Next Week, FBI Says
By Greg Chang

San Francisco, April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Computer hackers in China may be preparing to orchestrate attacks on U.S. Internet sites
and computers next week, computer-security experts and the FBI said.

Hackers in China have posted messages on Web sites instigating computer vandalism as tensions between the two countries
mount, security experts said. The countries have sparred recently over the collision of a U.S. spy plane with a Chinese jet and over
U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Some U.S. hackers also have focused attacks on disabling Chinese Web sites.

Traffic from China probing Web sites for weaknesses has intensified in recent days, security groups said. An Internet worm
discovered last month dubbed ``Lion'' can be used to control compromised computers and will send user passwords to an e-mail

address in China, the FBI said.

``It's very much real,'' said Alan Paller, director of research for the System Administration, Networking and Security Institute, a
research group in Bethesda, Maryland. ``The winds are already here. Odds are they will be even bigger next week.''

Next week could be significant for Chinese hackers because May 4 is the anniversary of a 1919 protest in China over government
concessions to foreign powers, and May 7 is the two- year anniversary of the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
May 1 is May Day, an international workers holiday.

Politically Motivated

Politically motivated hacking is on the rise, Paller said, citing conflicts in the Middle East and between Taiwan and China that have
spilled over into cyberspace.

Security experts have a mixed record on forecasting potential threats. Many were wrong in predicting a slew of computer viruses
tied to the turn of the millennium.

This time, Paller said he's concerned because computer crime related to China has been increasing with the political conflict. A
U.S. hacker group called PoizonBox has defaced some 300 Chinese Internet sites, according to Web sites that track hacker
activity, and some Chinese vandals have retaliated.

``Hackers already have unlawfully defaced a number of U.S. Web sites, replacing existing content with pro-Chinese or anti- U.S.
rhetoric,'' said a security advisory issued Thursday by the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.

The advisory encouraged network administrators to more closely monitor systems next week.

``That's the only way we are commenting on this situation,'' said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman. ``It's a legitimate concern.''

Along with Web-site defacements, denial of service attacks are also a potential weapon, said Paller. Such attacks, which disabled
Web sites such as Yahoo! Inc. last year, swamp Web sites with repeated traffic.

Hackers conduct such attacks by planting software such as the Lion worm discovered last month on insecure computers that
allows them to be controlled remotely.

``A lot of traffic we're getting from China is scanning traffic, systematically looking for vulnerabilities,'' Paller said. ``We assume they
are preparing for denial-of-service attacks.''

Other experts say they haven't seen any significant increase in malicious activity. Constant vigilance is nevertheless important, they
say.

``We have no direct evidence,'' said Jeff Carpenter, the manager of the CERT Coordination Center, which studies Internet security.
``People face threats every day and they need to be concerned about their security every day.''