August 20,2008:
During the current Olympics, U.S.
military personnel trying to view the official Chinese Olympic web sites, using
PCs connected to the Internet via military servers, found that these Chinese
sites didn't exist. In fact, according to the military Internet access system,
no Chinese (.cn) web sites existed. When reporters asked military officials
about what was going on, they were told that it was Department of Defense
policy not to comment on Internet security matters.
What is
apparently going on is a Department of Defense effort to make it more difficult
for Chinese hackers to get into U.S. military networks. This is because a
hacker can booby trap a web site that will infect the PC of anyone
visiting. Well, not anyone. Those with
adequate protective software will get a warning that the site they are visiting
is trying to infect their PC. But an unprotected OC is vulnerable. Although all
Department of Defense PCs are supposed to be equipped with protection, with
over five million PCs to watch over, some are vulnerable. So, without telling
anyone, military access to all Chinese websites was cut. The thinking may have
been that the Chinese would use the Olympics to try and infect vulnerable
visitors, especially those who could be
identified as U.S. military PCs. In any event, neither Chinese or U.S. military
Internet security officials will say anything.