Australian Diplomats under Cyber Attack

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Espionage accusation between Australia and China continues.  This time it involves spam emails loaded with spyware.  The targets are said to be Australian foreign affairs officials whose work involve China.

According to today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed yesterday staff had been briefed about a suspicious email sent to several staff last month. The source of the email is under investigation by the department’s communications experts. ASIO and the AFP would not comment yesterday on whether they were also investigating the email.

A report in the Canberra Times said the email was suspected to have originated from China and was headed ”Australia-China Free Trade Agreement Negotiations Update”. It reportedly targeted officials who work on China-related matters.

A spokeswoman for the department would not say whether the email was believed to have come from China.

Neil of Floating Life has written about this DFAT warning in a blog post today, as he is commenting about last night’s ABC Four Corners report on cyber crime.

This is a LINK to a Chinese language report about this incident at Radio Free Asia.

Chinese Government Sanctioned Cyber-terrorism?

One of our commenters, “Anon”, has posted this interesting story about how Chinese nationalists mistakenly attacked an Algerian BBS during a campaign to boycott French products last year:

RE: The Algerian BBS: It was nothing really, not a hack or any major concerted trolling. During the time when France was Public Enemy #1 (it’s really becoming hilarious how, other than the top 1-3 eternal enemies spots, the other most-hated countries are pretty much a revolving door of offenders) I saw a post somewhere (I don’t know where, Global Times, Tianya?) where somebody posted a link to a “French” board and said “hey, let’s go tell these guys what we think.” I followed the link and found some angry and/or propagandizing posts from Chinese there (either in English or obvious machine translations to French, I don’t know), but it was pretty obvious that the forum was Algerian, even though I don’t speak French. I mean, I think the Algerian flag was prominently displayed! So it was pretty obvious that they just found a French language forum at random. Not any big thing.

It is a pretty hilarious story.  I have plenty of sympathy for the Algerians, who would not have a clue what was going on.

However it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether this kind of trolling activity is in fact sanctioned by the Chinese Government. The same goes for hacking. Xinhua has just published a couple of news release to claim that the PRC government is worrying about the proliferation (and increasing popularity) of online hackers’ schools in China. Hackers are said to be responsible for 7.6 billion RMB economic loss in China last year. An incident of a hacker convicted for Internet crime has been highlighted in these Xinhua reports to demonstrate the PRC Government’s determination to curb the crime. The convicted hacker received one and a half years’ jail sentence for stealing over 7 million RMB from banks. If you ask me, I’ll say that the sentence is rather lenient for a country which is well known for imposing harsh penalty on those who commit even petty crime.

Xinhua’s issuing of the statements is probably an attempt to deflect international condemnation of the Chinese Government’s alleged involvement in a Civilian Cyber War Force called the “Red Hackers Alliance” (RHA). Here is a LINK to an article at the Strategy Page about this organisation.  Earlier, researchers in Toronto also published damning evidence of Chinese government-operated cyber-espionage networks in action.

Meanwhile another more concrete piece of evidence has just emerged to link China’s Internet filtering initiative, or the Great Fire Wall of China, directly to a type of cyber-crime known as DNS (Domain Name System) hijacking.  DNS hijacking involves converting legitimate domain names of websites into IP addresses of malicious websites using a rogue DNS server.  So when a user of an infected computer visits a  certain legitimate domain name, he is sent to a bogus website instead.  An expatriate in Shanghai published a blog post a couple of weeks ago about how he accidentally discovered this criminal practice of the GFW.  Since then, another blogger has also come forward to share his findings.

As I have advocated earlier, the most effective way for China to prove its innocence and to disassociate itself from any involvement in cyber-terrorism is to cooperate with the Australian Federal Police to apprehend (and possibly extradite) those who are involved in the hacking incident against MIFF.  This will send a really strong message to hackers in China about their Government’s determination to crack down on illegal Internet activities.  To no one’s surprise, this is not likely going to happen.  I heard from reliable sources that the AFP is not able to secure cooperation from their Chinese counterparts.  Under this country’s civil liberty legislation, the AFP only has limited authority to deal with such matter.  So the case has been transferred to our military intelligent agencies instead.  In short, the game is on.

Taiwan Spoke Out Against Removal of Film from MIFF

China’s determination to punish the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) over the screening of the Kadeer film has once again backfired.  What is at stake this time is the goodwill of Taiwanese people.  In short, this saga has the potential of winding back cross-strait ties that seem to have been improving since the Nationalist Party headed by Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan’s President in May last year.

The Taiwan Government Information Office (GIO) has expressed its disapproval of the withdrawal of the movie Miao Miao from the MIFF.  A spokesman from GIO confirmed that the producer of the film had failed to consult the GIO before pulling the film out.  The withdrawal of the film from the Festival had hurt the image of Taiwan. Miao Miao was produced by a Hong Kong film maker with funding from the GIO.  There is a possibility that the GIO will ask the producer for a reimbursement of the NT$4 million subsidy.  The GIO is also reserving the right to sue the Hong Kong producer Jet Tone for breach of contract.

Miao Miao’s withdrawal has met with mounting criticism in Taiwan in the past two days.  To many Taiwan people, the withdrawal suggested not only that Miao Miao, a film made with Taiwan funding, was categorized as a Chinese film in an international film festival, but also that Taiwan was siding with Beijing in the repression of Uighurs.

The Taipei Economic and Relations Office (TECO) in Australia has also informed the MIFF organiser that TECO intends to continue as a sponsor for the Festival because apart from Miao Miao, Taiwan still had two short films screening at the festival.  They are Joyce Agape and The Pursuit of What Was.

A journalist from Taipei Times wrote the following remarks in his blog about the saga.  I am quoting him because his views are shared by many of my Taiwanese friends:

Hopefully a price will be paid by those who made the decision to pull the movies from the festival, if only in bad publicity and diminishing sales at the box office. One can hope, too, that this will have served as a wake-up call for Taiwanese creative artists and government agencies such as the GIO that have pushed for cross-strait cooperation in the arts. One thing is sure: I’m never paying to see a movie directed, written or produced by Wang Kar-wai again. My Blueberry Nights, though cute, wasn’t all that great anyway.

Meanwhile, Rebiya Kadeer has arrived in Melbourne today.  She appeared at tonight’s The 7.30 Report.  During her interview with Mary Gearin, Kadeer said:

Under six decade of brutal Chinese rule, the Uyghur people have not enjoyed a day of peace. They love peace. They yearn for peace. And we also struggle for their human right and for democracy.

[……]

It is the Chinese Government accused us of separatism, and that’s Chinese Government’s mantra. And our goal is self-determination, which was actually part of the autonomous system granted to us by the Chinese authorities. And our hope is to hold the dialogue with the Chinese authorities to peacefully resettled the East Turkestan issue.

When my people, just like you, when they could truly enjoy freedom, when they could live like human beings. Until that day comes, I will not stop what I am doing.

According to The 7.30 Report, staff at MIFF are continuing to battle cyber terrorism and harassment from fenqing-type Chinese nationalists.  Ned and I would like to express our deepest admiration for these brave Australians.  It is not easy to have to constantly look behind one’s shoulder when walking down the street.  And we curse Laojun, the Chinese national who claimed to be responsible for the cyber crime against MIFF, and the journalist who helped to promote the course of this cyber criminal, all in the name of fair and balanced reporting??!!!

Chinese Cyber-terrorism Gives Kadeer More Publicity (Update)

Click HERE for the original post.

ABC News just confirms that a Chinese national has contacted the National Broadcaster, claiming responsibility for the hacking incident.  This is the relevant section from the news report:

The hacker has contacted the ABC saying he does not work for the Chinese Government and is just an ordinary, angry Chinese citizen who objects to the film.

The film’s director Jeff Daniels says he is concerned about the fact Victoria police will be putting on extra security for the screening.

“I personally find it appalling that the Chinese Government has put the film festival and film-goers in a position where they need a police escort and private security to see a film,” he said.

“I think Melbourne is getting a small taste of the position that the Chinese Government has put Rabiya Kadeer and her family and the Uighur population in for the past 60 years.”

The film festival organiser reiterates that the Kadeer film will be screened as schedule.

This author once again urges Chinese authorities and their representatives in Australia to cooperate with the Australian Police in tracking down the hacker(s) responsible for this act of cyber-terrorism.

Chinese Cyber-terrorism Gives Kadeer More Publicity

Check HERE for update

Rebiya Kadeer and the film 10 Conditions of Love and the Melbourne Film Festival continue to be the focus of international attention, thanks to a group of anarchic China-based hackers.

Hackers broke into the Melbourne International Film Festival’s official website and replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans.  The site was subsequently subjected to spam attacks.  Meanwhile Festival Director Richard Moore’s email account was inundated with abusive messages since the day he refused to comply with Chinese Government’s insolent demand to withdraw the Kadeer film from the program.  The matter is now under police investigation.  Initial findings indicate that the attacks originated from China.

Computer hacking is classified in International Law under “Terrorism”.  To be precise, it is called “Cyber-terrorism”.

My understanding is that the Chinese Government is very keen to seek cooperation from international communities to fight terrorism.  I am therefore calling upon Chinese authorities, particularly Chinese government’s representatives in Australia, to fully cooperate with Victorian Police and Australian Federal Police in their efforts to track down those China-based hackers who have committed such acts of cyber-terrorism. 

I also suggest that the Australia Government should issue travel warnings to Australians who plan to travel to China.  The Chinese language media in the PRC has been using both the Stern Hu scandal and the Kadeer film as excuses to launch an anti-Australia campaign.  There is also evidence to suggest that the Chinese government is trying hard to conceal this anti-Australia sentiment by blocking similar reports from appearing in its English language newspapers.  Take the Global Times as an example.  Many reports about the MIFF have appeared in its Chinese edition in the last few days.  One of these online reports has attracted more than 500 anti-Australia comments.  These reports were instantly copied and disseminated at major Internet portals in China.  However, up till now not a single report about the MIFF had appeared in the English edition of the Global Times.

The Chinese Government has used similar tactics of appealing to public sentiment in its dealings with the French.  In this difficult economic climate, the Chinese Government will use all tricks available to extort concessions from trading partners, or to shift blame away from the Communist leadership.  Therefore I remind the Australian Foreign Affairs Ministry to advise caution.  There are good reasons to be concerned about the safety of Australians in China.