Hacker attack underlines need to boost cybersecurity
A backdoor program-aided cyberattack on Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center in Hubei province by overseas hacker groups with foreign government links has once again underscored the need for China to beef up its cyber capabilities to block similar attacks and fight cybercrimes.
Backdoor programs are applications that allow cybercriminals to access computers remotely. These can be installed in both software and hardware components.
The Wuhan Municipal Emergency Management Bureau, which is in charge of the earthquake monitoring center, said on Wednesday that the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and internet security services provider 360 Security Technology recently notified the bureau that part of the center’s network equipment, used for collecting data for early warning, was attacked by foreign organizations.
The center reported the situation to local police and closed off the involved network equipment at the front-end station in time, the bureau said in a statement, adding that it reserves the right to pursue a case against perpetrators of the crime.
The bureau and the center are firmly against any form of cyberattack, whether conducted by an organization or an individual, and any behavior that harms earthquake monitoring infrastructure will be investigated and held accountable under the law, the statement added.
The Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau also issued a statement on Wednesday, saying its Jianghan branch received the cyberattack report from the earthquake monitoring center on Tuesday. Such attacks pose a serious threat to national security and the police have filed a case for investigation, it said.
According to preliminary probe, the attack was launched by “overseas hacker organizations with government backgrounds”.
The police said they have carried out technical analysis of the backdoor program samples extracted, showing that the program was capable of controlling and stealing seismic intensity data collected by the network equipment at the front-end station of the earthquake monitoring center.
At a regular news conference on Wednesday, Foreign…
