It is not just the athletes who will be sweating in Beijing this summer. It is a hacker’s paradise – a target rich environment where people will have their guard down. While it is a noble thought that the Olympics are a time for adversaries to set aside their differences and enjoy the spirit of athletic competition, it is unfortunately quite naïve.
National security agencies are warning businesses and government officials that laptops, smart phones, and USB devices taken to the Beijing Olympics are likely to be penetrated by Chinese agents aiming to steal secrets or plant malicious software in order to infiltrate U.S. computer networks. Equipment left unsupervised for just minutes in a hotel room or even during a security screening can be hacked, data mined and bugged. China's government also controls all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and wireless networks, so computers and PDAs will both be monitored and open for compromised by remote means.
China is currently the source of the most advanced cyber attacks, targeting foreign governments, as well as their own dissidents. While it is undisputed that every modern government employs offensive and defensive cyber warfare expert, few other countries share China’s disregard for human rights. Additionally, with the growing offensive military capabilities China possesses, the paramilitary connections between hackers and the Chinese government are quite disturbing.
While the Chinese government maintains plausible deniability, China uses the Internet as a weapon against its dissenting citizens and other outspoken critics. In early May, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback alleged that the Chinese government had asked major hotel chains to censor their Internet traffic during the 2008 Olympic Games. This is not something normal in the spirit of openness and progressive thinking, in line with the Olympics.
The most disturbing ramifications from the 2008 Olympic Games will be the Trojan Horses and root kits installed on visitors’ computers by Chinese agents and hackers. Blissfully ignorant, these tourists will return to the United States and other countries to infect their networks with their payload.
Why is this disturbing? The historical trend of Chinese hackers has not been top secrets, but to probe networks in “proof of concept” attacks against foreign governments, military networks, utilities, and civilian networks. For the United States, an example is with the NIPRNet (Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network). The NIPRNet will crucial in the rapid deployment of U.S. and allied forces should China attack Taiwan. By crippling even an unclassified communications network, China would gain crucial hours and minutes in a lightning attack designed to force Taiwanese surrender. While it is impossible to predict the course of human history, the Chinese government has developed a trained and capable cyber warfare force capable of a first-strike attack.
The best defense is to have a healthy sense of paranoia when traveling to foreign countries, or when using public Internet connections. Any publicly accessible computer, such as a business kiosk at a hotel or an Internet café, should always be viewed as an infected machine. There is a good chance they computers do have keystroke loggers installed and will capture everything typed during your session, which will compromise your account logon credentials and more. If you must use a public computer, never access any account that can later be used to affect a data breach on another account. You may want to create a temporary, free webmail account that is specifically used for your travel purposes
