Feb 3, 2010

Chinese Trojan Attack on Indian NSAOffice

            India’s formerNational Security Adviser who was also a Special Representative on the Boundarytalks with Beijing claimed that there was a hacker attack on his offices onDecember 15, 2009, by the Chinese, the same day that US firms handling defencecontracts complained of similar attacks. In an interview with British daily,“The Times”, Mr M K Narayanan said that this was not the first attempt by theChinese to hack into the systems of important government offices. The attack isreported to have been made in an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing a'Trojan'. Trojans allows a remote computer to access data and delete as well asdownload files, which keeping in view the sensitivity of Mr Narayanan’s officeis a cause of concern. "People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese.It is difficult to find the exact source but this is the main suspicion. Itseems well founded," he told `The Times'.

            Chinahowever dismissed the charge as "groundless". "I can say thatthese accusations are groundless," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxutold reporters when asked to comment on National Security Adviser M KNarayanan's comments. "The Chinese government is firmly against hackingactivities and will deal with relevant cases in accordance with the law,"Ma said.

FEB 2010