[photopress:hackers08_1.jpg,full,alignright]Chinese security officials are somewhat worried hackers will strike while the Olympic Games are being held in Beijing.
China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) said in a report released earlier this month, ‘Based on historical experience, many hackers seeking to make a name for themselves view the Olympic Games as a challenge and a target, and the Beijing Olympics may face attacks from individual hackers, groups, organizations, as well as other countries and those with all kinds of political motivations, therefore the network security situation is very grim,’
Well, yes and no. For a Chinese hacker to go at the Beijing Olympics would be monstrous. Other hackers would take is as unpatriotic and such a hacker, in the opinion of several hackers, would quicky be denounced.
And one can take it the authorities would not take a light view of it.
A high-profile attack on Chinese computer systems during the Beijing Olympics would be a serious blow to organizers and the government, which has worked hard to position the Games as a celebration of the economic and social strides made by China since embarking on reforms 30 years ago.
Jim Fitzsimmons, a security consultant in Shanghai said, ‘It’s very important for the government to make this successful. They are taking this issue very, very seriously. In terms of platforms that people could attack in China, or subvert to attack something else, there’s quite a bit out there.’
There is now a special response team in Beijing that will monitor systems for signs of attacks and then respond if one is detected.
So far, there has not been a response from foreign hackers to Chinese attacks against CNN or pro-Tibet Web sites. But hackers may simply be biding their time, choosing to attack or deface Chinese Web sites during the Olympics, a time when any such incident would generate the most publicity.
Fitzsimmons said, ‘I honestly believe something is going to happen, but how bad it could be or what is the scale of it, that’s anybody’s guess.’
One guess, devoutly believed here, is that it will happen but it will be relatively minor.
Source: PC World
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