House Rep claims IT breached by China, calls for trade crackdown

Yesterday, a high-ranking congressman issued a belated clarion call for procedurally improving the US' data security, citing data breaches that took place two years ago believed to have been perpetrated by China.

Back in August 2006, Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R - Va.) -- ranking member on the House State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee -- noted that four of his office's computers had been hacked: his chief of staff's, his legislative director's, a foreign policy and human rights staff member's, and one belonging to a member of his judiciary staff. Rep. Wolf believed whoever was responsible was seeking information about casework on behalf of political dissidents and human rights activists.

"That kind of information, as well as everything else on my office computers -- e-mails, memos, correspondence and district casework -- was open for outside eyes to see," stated the 69-year old Virginia congressman on the House floor yesterday. "My office's computers were cleaned and returned to me by House Information Resources, but ever since this happened, I have been deeply concerned that this institution is not adequately aware of or protected from these types of threats."

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R - N.J.) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee supported "his friend" Wolf and brought up two events where his Human Rights Subcommittee computers were "attacked by a virus...from a Chinese IP address." The files which were hacked into, according to Smith, were all related to China, including correspondence with human rights groups regarding abuses in China, information and emails about hearings on China, and legislative proposals related to Beijing, including the Global Online Freedom Act.

Smith and Wolf introduced the Global Online Freedom Act as HR 275 in 2007: "To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes."

Speaking about the bill, Smith said yesterday, "For the Chinese people, it will make the prospect of freedom and democracy more achievable. For Chinese dissidents, it's a matter of survival, and for us, it may inhibit the transfer of technologies that we must prevent from falling into the hands of the enemies of fundamental human rights."

Within the bill, Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, Tunisia, and Vietnam are designated as "Internet-restricting" countries. It is the intention of the bill (EC. 101. subheading 3) to deter any United States business from cooperating with officials of Internet-restricting countries in effecting the political censorship of online content.

"With enormous aid, comfort, and scads of one-of-a-kind technological assistance from US companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, Google, and Yahoo, the Chinese Government has achieved a huge qualitative capability to suppress freedom of speech on the Internet at home and to wage cyber-warfare abroad." Smith said, "Google, for its part, has become the de facto center for China's ubiquitous anti-American, anti-Tibetan, anti-religious propaganda machine, while Cisco has made the dreaded Chinese secret police among the most effective in the world."

The bill that Smith and Wolf introduced has cleared three committees and is ready for floor action. For his part, Wolf has also proposed a privileged resolution on the House floor calling for improved protection of Congressional information systems.

As Wolf remarked yesterday, "We cannot afford to look the other way when foreign sources are threatening to compromise our government institutions, our economy, our very way of life through cyber-espionage. We cannot sit by and watch."

Today, Chinese representatives denied part of any such attacks, saying that neither Wolf nor Smith provided any evidence, and that the claims were "groundless." Claims made by Wolf that the FBI previously confirmed China's involvement were met with no comment from the bureau.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said, "I'd like to urge some people in the U.S. not to be paranoid, they should do more to contribute to mutual understanding, trust and friendship between the U.S. and China."