By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
SHANGHAI, China– Recent cyberattacks against American companies, including Google, has been linked to two prominent schools in China, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School.
Jiaotong is known to have one of China’s top computer science programs where a few weeks ago, Jiaotong students came out first in an international computer programming competition sponsored by I.B.M.
Lanxiang is a school that runs with military support and trains China’s computer scientists for the military.
Google had announced last week that some of its computer codes were stolen and that digital thieves had attempted to break into the accounts of human rights activists who oppose China’s policies.
In response to the cyberattack, Google confronted the Chinese government regarding its censorship policies where the government blocks politically and culturally-sensitive subject matters from search results in the country.
In China, controlling the web world is considered a matter of state security and although Beijing promotes Internet use for commerce, the government heavily censors materials it considers subversive.
However, the Chinese government had released a statement back in January claiming that their anti-hacking policy is transparent and has denied any involvement in the recent online attacks.
Nevertheless, a professor from Jiaotong’s School of Information Security Engineering who wished to remain anonymous said, “I’m not surprised. Actually students hacking into foreign Web sites is quite normal.”
Conversely, a school official from Lanxiang said, “I think it’s impossible for our students to hack Google or other U.S. companies because they are just high school graduates and not at an advanced level. Also, because our school adopts close management, outsiders cannot easily come into school.”
Google’s accusations against China regarding the cyberattacks have created a sensitive issue for the U.S. government in dealing with China.
After Google went public with the accusations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton challenged China’s Internet censorship, calling Chinese government control over the Internet an “information-age Berlin Wall.”
For more information, please see:
ABC – Schools in China Say They Weren’t Behind Hacking – 20 February 2010
FOX News – Cyberattacks Traced to Computers in Chinese Schools – 19 February 2010
NYT – 2 China Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks – 18 February 2010
