Hacker crashes military exercises, USA, Japan suspected

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/more/cahners-chicago/11407/6278307/1

[This is a rumor, and doesn't look at the idea that this could better
be explained off as bugs in shoddy PLA C4I computer networks. -WK]


"Weijiang [Guarding the Frontier] Six" military exercise

Hacker intruded twice

It was suspected that the United States used satellite to conduct
high-technology interference

Establish anti-hacker intrusion organs

Text of article by Ma Hsiang entitled: "CCP [Chinese Communist Party]
military exercise suspended by computer hacker" published by Hong Kong
magazine 'Cheng Ming' on 1st August; subheadings as published

Editor: A computer hacker single-handedly suspended a high-technology
combat exercise using live ammunition that was held by the CCP
[Chinese Communist Party], and triggered a lot of suspicions. For your
reference, we publish this article, contributed by our reader Mr Ma
Hsiang, about a rumour in Beijing.

In the later part of June, the CCP conducted a high-technology combat
exercise with live ammunition that was participated by many arms of
the military service in the northwestern region. It was an inspection
of the highest standard on live-ammunition combat ever held by the CCP
in recent years. Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, and Hu Jintao were at the
site personally to observe the combat.

The exercise began at midnight on 20th June. Zhang Wannian was the
commander in chief, and Fu Quanyou was the deputy commander in chief.
The exercise was code named "Weijiang Six," and the general command
centre was set up in the western suburbs of Xining City in Qinghai
Province.

The military exercise was divided into battle theatres A and B that
operated simultaneously. Battle theatre A was located in the
northwestern Qilian District, its on-site commander was Deputy Chief
of General Staff Guo Boxiong, and its command centre was in Zhangye,
Gansu Province. Battle theatre B was in the northwestern Qinhuangling
area, its on-site commander was Deputy Chief of General Staff Kui
Fulin, and its command centre was in Lantian, Shaanxi Province.

As the exercise proceeded, at 1420 [local time] on 25th June,
computers in the Xining General Command Centre suddenly hanged under
an attack by an unidentified hacker. Inspection and repair work was
immediately carried out, and the computers resumed operation by 2100.
The general command centre gave instructions to temporarily suspend
take-offs by aircraft and guided missile firing.

The hacker again attacked the computers at 1000 on 26th June, two
hours into the exercise. The general command centre again instructed
that the exercise for airborne units was to be stopped. Inspection and
rush-repair work was conducted until over 2000 before the intruding
hacking could be eliminated.

That night, a meeting was held at the "Weijiang Six" general command
centre, and it was decided that the military combat exercise with live
ammunition should be discontinued, and replaced by an exercise on
various topics. The incident was not to appear in the newspapers, and
no special bulletin would be issued.

In view of the incident, Zhang Wannian assembled telecom and computer
engineering experts from the People's Liberation Army [PLA] General
Staff Headquarters' security bureau and the Ministry of Public
Security's technological department for a "group consultation." It was
reported that until today there is no result from the inspection, but
it was suspected that the United States used satellite reconnaissance,
and then-high-technology means to attack the central computer system
in the command centre, or possibly could have been a hacking intrusion
by Japanese spies who penetrated deep into the Chinese boundaries. Of
course, it was also suspected that maybe an "insider ghost" in the
army did the mischief.

In early July, 12 people, including those from three technical
departments of the PLA General Staff Headquarters, and a director and
assistant director at the computer and telecom control room in Lanzhou
Military Region, were detained for investigation by the PLA General
Staff Headquarters' security bureau. In mid-July, acting chief of the
bureau of confidential work under the PLA General Staff Headquarters,
surnamed Qin, and his assistant, surnamed Zhu, were also arrested. It
was still not clear whether the arrest was related to the case, but
there was no later development.

The many attacks by hackers on the army's central computer system had
rather serious repercussions. The economic loss incurred by
discontinuing the military exercise amounted to more than 300m yuan in
military funds. The army side noted: We do not rule out the
possibility that the incident was the planning of a computer master
from a science research department who obtained relevant classified
materials on the military exercise.

Since May, the PLA General Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of
Public Security have supervised domestic computer network units and
personnel, and in particular, internal control has been carried out in
companies from abroad, and Western and Taiwan businessmen. They also
decided to offer a huge 5m yuan cash reward to anyone who could inform
on organizational or hostile computer hacking intruders.

The Central Military Commission set up an internal "006" group to
investigate the incident. The State Council appropriated 1.2bn yuan
special fund for the establishment of permanent organs by the PLA
General Staff Headquarters, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of
State Security, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom
Industries, and other departments, that specialize in striking at
hacker intrusions, and preventing foreign hostile forces from using
computers and telecom to cause interference and destruction in China.
Subsidiaries for the anti-computer hacking intrusion organ will also
be set up in such places as Tianjian, Zhejiang, Hainan, and Sichuan.


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