Chinese hackers are accessing multiple agencies in Alaska
An elite group of Chinese hackers probed American companies and government departments while a U.S. trade delegation visit to China.
China-based hackers once again broke into U.S. government computer networks. This hack could be a big risk in the entire federal workforce.
The Department of Homeland Security said;
The data from the Office of Personnel Management, the human resources department for the federal government and the Interior Department is compromised. Data of 4 million former and current employees are now under wrong hands.
The data could have been protected with the better use of data protection technologies. Nowadays, encryption is also failing in front of cyber attacks. The FBI is investigating to identify how and from where did this occur?
The breach is an indication
Senator Susan Collins is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said, “How a foreign power successfully infiltrated all security clearance and focussed on compromising data.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed the allegations
Hong Lei said, “Beijing hopes that the U.S. should stop suspecting Chinese hand behind this hack. Rather than making unverified allegations, U.S. should show more trust in us as we are ready to cooperate with them.”
Beijing denied official involvement in cyberattacks on foreign targets. On the other hand, China is herself a target of hacking attacks from the U.S. but now calls for greater international cooperation in combating hacking.
Hong further said, "Hacker attacks anonymously, across nations; therefore, tracking such attacks is necessary.
One fundamental question is still unanswered from the Department of Homeland security,
“Whether employee information was stolen or not?”
The Office of Personnel Management said;
The agency is offering credit monitoring and identity theft insurance for 18 months to all those affected individuals.
In November 2017, a cyber breach compromised private files of 25,000 DHS workers and thousands of other federal employees.
Cybersecurity experts said that OPM was also targeted a year ago by China, but no personal information was stolen.
Chinese groups attack U.S. agencies and companies especially insurers, health-care providers, intelligence services and defense security services.
The Chinese groups look for information which compromises people. For example, someone is going to make monetary gains then Chinese targets them.
It is still unclear why the EINSTEIN system couldn't detect the breach when records were being copied and removed.
"DHS is monitoring federal networks and is working aggressively to assess the extent of this alleged intrusion."
Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright from Center for Digital Government said;
EINSTEIN is a failure at this point! The government should outsource their security to the private sector where there is some accountability.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said;
"Our response to these attacks is not limited to notifying people after their personal information has is stolen. Moreover, we must start to prevent these breaches in the first place."
Chinese hackers targeted the following organizations;
- Alaska Communications Systems Group Inc
- Ensco PLC’s Atwood Oceanics
- The Alaska Department of Natural Resources
- The Alaska governor’s office
- Regional internet service provider TelAlaska.
China was Alaska’s largest foreign trading partner in 2017, with over $1.32 billion in exports. But it seems after China’s hack will break the trade.
China’s Ministry of Defence hasn't responded to anything on this incident. The trade discussion was a way to scan Alaskan software. The primary activity was to gain insight into the Alaskan government.
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US-China trade tensions have escalated into an economic conflict. The economic conflict also broke an agreement between Beijing and Washington to stop cyber-enabled industrial espionage.
It was seen as a topic that the US and China could actually have substantive discussions on. That’s not really the case anymore, especially with this trade war that both sides have vowed not to lose.
