[LINK] For China activists, hacking attacks a fact of life

[Kim Holburn]

A conjunction of two recent articles.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/12/us-rights-china-hacking-idUSTRE75B14J20110612

> Even working on her laptop in Amnesty International's London headquarters or talking on her mobile phone going around the city, Corinna-Barbara Francis suspects Chinese authorities are listening in.
> 
> At a time when authorities in Beijing are carrying out the most serious crackdown on dissent since Tiananmen Square, the human rights group's China researcher says she simply assumes all her electronic data is already compromised.
> 
> Whether or not she is right is almost impossible to know. Beijing angrily denies any suggestions of official complicity in a string of recent high-profile computer hacks including Internet giant Google, which said it traced an attempt illicitly to access accounts of activists and others to China.
> 
> "We get dozens of attempts every day -- viruses and worms -- trying to attack our systems," Francis told Reuters, saying many appear to originate in China though proving it was much harder. "I simply assume that everything is being read. I would not keep the name of a particularly sensitive contact on my laptop, send it by e-mail or discuss it by phone."
> 
> Such tradecraft has long been common among activists operating in authoritarian states. The difference now, she says, is that the borderless nature of the Internet means activists assume the reach of state spies from sophisticated authoritarian states now extends into the very fabric of western nations.
> 
> "Even in the UK, the phone system is not beyond the reach of the Chinese government," she said. "I might write a name down... with paper and pen but often I won't even do that."
> 
> One colleague, she said, was so nervous that she would not discuss sensitive material anywhere near a mobile phone anywhere in the world unless its battery was removed, for fear it has been hijacked as a listening device.


http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china/chinese-spying-devices-installed-on-hong-kong-cars-57587.html

> Chinese Spying Devices Installed on Hong Kong Cars

> The listening device as photographed and documented by Apple Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper. (Explanatory slide by The Epoch Times)
> 
> 
> For years now Chinese authorities have been installing spying devices on all dual-plate Chinese-Hong Kong vehicles, enabling a vast network of eavesdropping across the archipelago, according to a Hong Kong newspaper.
> 
> The report in Apple Daily states that the recording devices began being installed as "inspection and quarantine cards" in July 2007. They were installed without charge by the Shenzhen Inspection and Quarantine Bureau on thousands of vehicles.
> 
> Smugglers were the first to note something strange about the devices. A source told Apple Daily that after the cards were installed mainland authorities had no trouble picking off the cars carrying illicit goods. 
> 
> "For every ten cars we ran we only had [smuggled goods] in three or four to reduce the risk, but the border agents caught all of them. The accuracy was unreal!" Apple Daily quoted the smuggler saying.
> 
> The device, no larger than a PDA, is taped onto the vehicle's front window. Protective tape covers the screws, presumably to prevent tampering—though it didn't stop Apple Daily from removing the devices, taking them to experts for inspection, and presenting pictures of them splayed open on their website, with neat graphics indicating the various internal components. 
> 
> For every ten cars we ran we only had [smuggled goods] in three or four to reduce the risk, but the border agents caught all of them. The accuracy was unreal!
> 
> Apple Daily says they took the device to a university professor and a private investigator, both of whom attested to the espionage potential of the units.
> 
> Zhang Dawei, identified as "a private investigator of over 30 years," took a look at the device's internal structure and told the Daily that the card could certainly be used for eavesdropping. 
> 
> An Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong, Zheng Liming, took apart one of the devices and confirmed that it can listen in on conversations.
> 
> And the range is extensive, he said. "The signal receiving range is up to 20km, which means if the device installer wants to, they can listen even when the vehicles are in Hong Kong," he said.
> 
> Two of the regions in Hong Kong where the device can transmit data back to China are Sha tin and Tuen mun.
> 
> Much cheaper chips can be used to check inspection status for simple border crossings, Zhang said, "But this device uses chips commonly found in Bluetooth and voice recording devices, designed for receiving voice transmission." 
> 
> He thus thought it "very likely" that they were being used for surveillance.
> 
> The Daily interviewed several Hong Kong drivers to gauge their reactions; predictably, they were often irate. 
> 
> Ms. Deng, who operates a real estate business, said: "Even if we hired a maid, we are not allowed to install a surveillance camera in her room due to privacy issues! You can't just do whatever you want."



-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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