Chinese hackers spying on US weapons programs

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

The news this article brings to us is no surprise to me at all.

Chinese hackers have gained access to secret designs for a slew of sophisticated US weapons programs, officials said Tuesday, possibly jeopardizing the American military's technological edge.

The breaches were part of a broad Chinese campaign of espionage against top US defense contractors and government agencies, officials said, confirming a Washington Post account of a Pentagon report.

The Defense Science Board, a senior advisory group with government and civilian experts, concluded that digital hackers had gained access to designs for two dozen major weapons systems critical to missile defenses, combat aircraft and naval ships, according to a Pentagon document cited by the Post.

The cyber spying gave China access to advanced technology and could weaken the US military's advantage in the event of a conflict, the board said.

The Pentagon advisory report stopped short of accusing Beijing of stealing the designs, but the conclusions help explain recent American warnings to the Chinese government.

"It's not clear how much of our stuff they got," a defense official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

LINK TO SOURCE: HERE

I think this information explains why so many of the Chinese latest and greatest weapon systems, look nearly EXACTLY like the USA weapon systems. And also explains their rapid deployment of these systems, all that R&D work was already done for them by Boeing, Lockheed, etc, etc.

I had said years ago that the Chinese were getting all sorts of classified data; and apparently it has not stopped.

Yeah, I know... that is what countries spy agency are supposed to do, and that is their jobs to do. BUT DANG!!
Couldn't the USA have done a much better job of protecting those secrets?

I also have a gut feeling a lot of it was also handed over to them by traitors.

I have also stated that these times we live in now are the most corrupt in mans history.

It was "probably" planned that way.. so that when the coming conflict gets going, no one has anything over on the opposing forces. Everything has been levelled to an even playing field.

This will ensure it is a long and drawn out conflict, with maximum war profit potential for all involved.

Regardless of whether or not some may feel as I do about China... (trusting them as far as I could throw them); this information is very disturbing and says a lot about how sloppy our protecting secrets has become.

Pravdaseeker

Somehow, I'm not surprised. That same building where China does the hacking on another floor there are microscopes where military types dig embedded recording media out of chunks of human flesh. Trust me, it's 2013, and if they want to they can surgically implant cameras into bodies, make them look like scars or warts or something. Gross, desperate, but effective. It appears on some media looked at with tweezers there are black and white images of industrial building hallways or something. A couple floors down there is a China duplicate of NSA Internet spying, basically every time a USA visitor to a China website gets put on a grid of lots of websites, where they watch the mouse in real time, and I don't know what computer tricks they play. Very formal intelligence job stuff. Meh.

And I'm like, all that for a grainy image of a hallway? Really with the xray satellite uses at 3 in the morning turning my house into a jiffy pop container, is the flesh cam practical?

At least that's an educated guess. No proof, not even if it's in this worldline; I could have viewed it a hundred universes away.

So this, oooh, China is spying on non-China entities? Whoa, that's like, the most surprising thing I've heard all week. Said no one in USA ever.

Getting serious how does USA know about the tech stealing? Counter espionage. In conspiracy-land though, they could have been bait technologies that were designed to cross the border. Some people are desperate to get technology out of the classification boundaries, in order to profit. Migrating technology for the sake of industry.

reply to post by pravdaseeker


Most hacking occurs on the contractor and subcontractor end of things. RSA, which generates the security keys that most VPN networks use, was hacked and lost something like 45 million keys which allowed Lockheed to be hacked recently. It's amazing how many emails regarding projects go back and forth from the contractor to the subcontractor.

The F-22 program had over 1,000 subcontractors, and the F-35 has over 1,300. That's a lot of potential for information to leak, without someone having to hand information over.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by pravdaseeker

 

Most hacking occurs on the contractor and subcontractor end of things. RSA, which generates the security keys that most VPN networks use, was hacked and lost something like 45 million keys which allowed Lockheed to be hacked recently. It's amazing how many emails regarding projects go back and forth from the contractor to the subcontractor.

The F-22 program had over 1,000 subcontractors, and the F-35 has over 1,300. That's a lot of potential for information to leak, without someone having to hand information over.

Are you talking remote access VPN? Site to site VPN usually requires hard coded single IP addresses.

reply to post by Apollumi


Yes. They used remote access keys from RSA to allow access to their contractors and employees.

reply to post by Sandalphon


Hi Sandalphon, ATS Readers, Writers,

Yeah, USA tries to spy on other nations too... and yes, we have known about China and its notorious hacking.

With all that a given, or known to USA companies and government; one would think they would have tightened the belt on access and security. Especially since it has been going on for so long.. sigh.

I see your point on wanting classifieds out in the public... for the MIC (Military Industrial Complex).

I would imagine getting all the latest and greatest secrets lost to a potential future enemy, just gives the predatory military industry an excuse to come out with ANOTHER over priced bloated defense system to sell the government.

I am assuming the Pentagon can tell when their files got hacked into... and the likely source country of the hacking. Like the article says, it probably explains the recent threats or complaints to China about hacking government files by other countries.

They probably let it go at a low level complaint since China buys so much of the debt USA has every year, basically financing the forever war on terror..

Pravdaseeker

Originally posted by pravdaseeker

I would imagine getting all the latest and greatest secrets lost to a potential future enemy, just gives the predatory military industry an excuse to come out with ANOTHER over priced bloated defense system to sell the government.

What was hacked is so far from the latest and greatest that it's not even funny. There are many black projects in the works that are either close to, or already in service that have some technology that these projects only dream about.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Hi Zaphod58, ATS Readers, Writers,

GOOD GRIEF, you are kidding, I hope!! I know you are not though...

Amazing, all those contractors for ONE frikking plane?

Now that you show, or explain the immense amount of emails with all these contractors, I am NOW betting there is NOTHING still secret.. all has been lost to foreign powers.

I don't live in the USA any more, but I can't help but be really really angry over this type of news.

Somebody or some bodies heads need to roll over this kind of crapola going on.

The whole dang system sounds, or seems so very corrupted.

There was a news story how China got the plans for Australia's Spy Headquarters too today...

OZ SPY HQ plan stolen

Similar plans lost for the USA Embassy happened, and they had to rip out the interior of the Embassy, and totally redo it all... GREAT news if you are the guy doing the interior work on the job eh?

Pravdaseeker

reply to post by pravdaseeker


Sadly I'm not. The F-22 had 1,000 contractors working on it, across something like 46 states, and the F-35 has 1,300 contractors working on it across 45 states (and the total is more than that if you add in the nine other countries working on it). It's all about creating jobs around the country and in the right congressperson's district. By doing it that way they have made the F-35 too big to fail and are forcing it through no matter what Congress or the military says, because if they kill the project they kill thousands of jobs around the country.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Hi Zaphod58, ATS Readers, Writers,

Well, I certainly hope you are correct about the really advanced stuff out there.

I am thinking in case of a sudden war with them over what ever insane reason someone might come up with.
The systems we are using now... would be very vulnerable is my guess.

God forbid, but imagine seeing B2's dropping like flies on their first mission against (just for example) maybe China, or Russia.

Then going.. uh oh.... those aren't going to work anymore, now what? Drag out super secret project "X"? Which probably is out there somewhere..(Area 51?); but would a nation have the time to put a new system in place before they had their arse handed to them in a hat?

I think long gone are the days when you could wait 6 months or more after getting yer butt kicked real good, I.E. Pearl Harbor- amount of time to recover from that hit..??

What do you think on those lines?? Or are you saying they got a dozen squadrons of super secret project "X" planes in a underground hangar some where (just for an example)?

Honestly not trying to be a smart alec, if they really do hoard stuff like that; then one could maybe not get quite so super upset about it all. It would still anger me to no end, but at least the nation would still have a means of defending itself should a major war get started; then suddenly find its best bombers or fighter jets are shot down easily...

Anyhow, glad you are inputting to this thread, cuz I was thinking about your possible responses when I posted it..lol

Pravdaseeker

reply to post by pravdaseeker


They don't have huge numbers of the black projects, but there are enough of them out there to change things up a bit. And the B-2 has changed quite a bit since the original plans were given to the Chinese. Publicly the F-35 is the best aircraft out there, but rumors and other sources talk about a few other.....interesting aircraft that are years ahead of where the F-35 is right now.

Aircraft are constantly changing, and those plans don't involve all the subcontractors that the original build does, so it's more secure than the original plans oddly enough.

reply to post by Zaphod58

What was hacked is so far from the latest and greatest that it's not even funny. There are many black projects in the works that are either close to, or already in service that have some technology that these projects only dream about.

Yep, these kinds of projects are ONLY worked on, onsite, and NOTHING (not even a note) leaves the project area. My father was involved in some of these and he never even got to go home with the same clothing on, hehe... No VPN to hack for these. You'd have to be on a terminal, in the room, etc. No network. Totally old school.

Thing is, the US is an open society, which means spying on us is a LOT easier than vice-versa. Just look at most things from the Chinese, and you'll no doubt see how much was ripped off over the years.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Apollumi

 

Yes. They used remote access keys from RSA to allow access to their contractors and employees.

I've always been amazed at how lax security is usually. Every place I have been a net admin at they've usually had people that literally would use examples from books. What always happens is you have people that are high in the food chain which have no idea what they are hiring.

I remember the place I worked at before where I'm at now. The main financial guy, just below the owner, nobody was allowed to touch his computer but my boss. My boss unfortunately was incompetent. That is not a casual jaded comment btw. He was very lacking in the IT department. One day he was gone and this guy was having computer problems. What I discovered was he had like 50 damn trojans on his computer. It was eat up with #. He also had unlimited access to the Internet. Bad combination.

Hmmmmm, how many times have I been threatened to be fired for limiting somebody who's ego was tremendous? My favorite tactic of all time is to log their web access with daily reports to me. Then, I block em. First thing they do is cry like a baby about how I'm limiting their potential for doing business for the company. And oh, I let em. Wait for it even. So when they have announced to the powers that be I'm screwing the company. That is when I send them a few of the reports of their porn surfing activity. Usually from that point on they call me sir. Of course, some people will fire (and can) your ass for blocking their porn.