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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/technology/22cyber.html
SHANGHAI — With its sterling reputation and its scientific bent, Shanghai Jiaotong University has the feel of an Ivy League institution. Skip to next paragraph RelatedGoogle Asks Spy Agency for Help With Inquiry Into Cyberattacks (February 5, 2010)2 China Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks (February 19, 2010)
The university has alliances with elite American ones like Duke and the University of Michigan. And it is so rich in science and engineering talent that Microsoft and Intel have moved into a research park directly adjacent to the school.
ButJiaotong, whose sprawling campus here has more than 33,000 students, isfacing an unpleasant question: is it a base for sophisticated computerhackers?
Investigators looking into Web attacks on Google and dozens of other American companies last year have traced the intrusions to computers at Jiaotong as well as an obscure vocational school in eastern China, according to people briefed on the case.
Securityexperts caution that it is hard to trace online attacks and that thedigital footprints may be a “false flag,” a kind of decoy intended tothrow investigators off track.
But those with knowledge of theinvestigation say there are reliable clues that suggest the highlysophisticated attacks may have originated at Jiaotong and the moreobscure campus, Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province, aninstitution with ties to the Chinese military.
Last weekend, thetwo schools strongly denied any knowledge of the attacks, which singledout corporate files and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists.
Aspokesman for Jiaotong told local news outlets that school officialswere “shocked and indignant” to learn of the allegations. And aLanxiang spokesman called the reports preposterous.
But analysts say Jiaotong and Lanxiang are certain to come under close scrutiny.
Jiaotongis one of China’s top universities, and one charged with helpingtransform this country into a science and technology powerhouse.
Theschool has exchange programs with some of the world’s leadinguniversities. Early this year, Duke said that with the help ofJiaotong, it would build its own campus near Shanghai.
Michael J. Schoenfeld, a spokesman for Duke, said on Friday that the university was troubled by the allegations.
“We’regoing to have to explore that with Shanghai Jiaotong and understand thesituation,” he said. “It’s a very complex situation.”
One ofJiaotong’s strongest departments is computer science, which hasgarnered support from some of America’s biggest technology companies,including Cisco Systems. Microsoft has collaborated with Jiaotong on a laboratory for intelligent computing and intelligent systems at the university.
Two weeks ago, Jiaotong students won an international computer programming competition sponsored by I.B.M.,known as the Battle of the Brains, beating out Stanford and other eliteinstitutions. It was the third time in the last decade that Jiaotongstudents had taken the top prize.
Jiaotong is also home to theSchool of Information Security Engineering, which specializes inInternet security. The school’s dean and chief professor have bothworked on technology matters for the People’s Liberation Army,according to the school’s Web site.
The school, which hasreceived financing from a high-level government science and technologyproject, code-named 863, has also regularly invited world-famoushackers and Web security experts to lecture there.
The latestclues do not answer the question of who was behind the attacks. But itis likely to put added pressure on Beijing to investigate a case thathas prompted Google to threaten to pull out of China.
Beijing hasnot announced an investigation, but Web security experts emphasize thatthe Chinese government would need to be involved to find the ultimateperpetrators of the attacks.
“The U.S. would not be able totrace this” back to the source, said O. Sami Saydjari, the founder ofthe Cyber Defense Agency, a private Web security firm based inWisconsin. “We cannot trace it beyond borders. We’d need thecooperation of the Chinese.”
Xiao Qiang, an expert on ChineseInternet censorship and control, says Jiaotong is studying not just Websecurity but also how to filter content that the government may deemunhealthy.
“Computer security may sound neutral, but in China, italso includes content, including content the government doesn’t likeand wants to get rid of,” he says.
Scott J. Henderson, the author of “The Dark Visitor:Inside the World of Chinese Hackers,” said that in 2007, a prominentChinese hacker with ties to China’s Ministry of Security also lecturedat Jiaotong.
“He gave a lecture called ‘Hacking in a Nutshell,’ ”said Mr. Henderson, whose research was partly financed by the Americanmilitary.
In a statement on Sunday, Microsoft said it could not comment on reports that some hacking had been traced to Jiaotong.
Butthe statement also said: “We condemn cyberattacks and industrialespionage no matter who is ultimately responsible. We hope officialswill conduct a full investigation and cooperate fully withinternational authorities to get to the bottom of this situation.”
Google and other companies that were victims of the attacks have declined to comment.
Investigatorsare also looking into whether some of the intrusions originated atLanxiang Vocational School, in the city of Jinan.
Lanxiang, whichhas 30,000 students studying trades like cosmetology and welding, wasfounded in 1984 by a former military officer on land donated by themilitary, according to Jinan’s propaganda department.
On its Website, the school records visits to the campus by military officers andboasts of sending “a large batch of graduates to the army” and says“those graduates become the backbone of the army.”
Graduates ofthe school’s computer science department are recruited by the localmilitary garrison each year, according to the school’s dean, Mr. Shao,who would give only his last name.
School officials also insist that Lanxiang students are not capable of sophisticated hacking.
“It’simpossible for our students to hack Google and other U.S. companies,”Mr. Shao said in a telephone interview. “They are just high schoolgraduates and not at an advanced level.”
Little information ispublicly available about the school’s computer science department. Butthe school says its computer laboratory is so enormous that it was oncelisted in the Guinness World Records book.
Bao Beibei and Chen Xiaoduan contributed research.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 24, 2010
An article on Monday about the scrutiny of two Chineseeducational institutions to which researchers have traced onlineattacks on American companies misstated the location of Duke University’s planned campus in China and the date that plans for that campus were announced. The campus will be in Kunshan, near Shanghai, not in Shanghai itself, and the plans were announced on Jan. 22, not “last year.” |
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