More Members of Congress have had their computers infiltrated by hackers within China than initially suspected, a lawmaker has revealed. Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) admitted to having data removed from their Capitol Hill computers last week, but Wolf says there are more. “I’m not at liberty to say who they are, but there are other members,” said Wolf, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee’s State and Foreign Operations subcommittee. Computers within the Foreign Affairs Committee, on which Smith serves as a senior Republican, were also infiltrated. Kirk suspects that other committees may have been attacked as well. “I would suspect that the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, Intelligence, (and) Appropriations committees would all be top targets,” Kirk said.
There’s no proof that the Chinese government is involved in these activities. In fact, outside experts say there’s no way to be certain the hackers are even operating in China. However, Wolf says that the FBI believes the attack is coming from Chinese hackers, the material stolen from the computers would be of interest to Beijing: information about Chinese dissidents and human rights activists. Multiple reports indicate that the Chinese government is believed to have accessed a computer belonging to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez during his visit to the country last year. And the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has concluded that such attacks are on the rise:
The Commission also expressed concern about China’s increasingly capable military and its ability to destroy satellites and to wage cyberattacks against U.S. computer networks. Organized attacks on U.S. networks have been widely reported since 2005, following a coordinated assault that appears to have started in 2003, dubbed “Titan Rain.” American security experts blame the campaign on hackers backed by the Chinese military.
It’s to be expected that governments are going to spy on each other — particularly China and the United States. But if Congress and the Commerce Department have been hacked, it’s only logical that other agencies are being targeted as well. Let’s hope their security is more effective.
