Representative Frank Wolf, R-Va., said four of his computers were compromised beginning in 2006. New Jersey Representative Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said two of the computers at his global human rights subcommittee were attacked in December 2006 and March 2007, according to the AP. More ominously, Wolf stated that after an attack, a car with license plates belonging to Chinese officials went to the home of a dissident in Fairfax County, Va., and photographed it. Simultaneously, the House International Relations Committee--now known as the House Foreign Affairs Committee--was targeted by someone working inside China, said committee spokeswoman Lynne Weil. Moreover, U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. Wolf said he was introducing a House resolution that would help ensure protection for all House computers and information systems; he said Congress should hold hearings, specifically the House Intelligence Committee, Armed Services Committee and Government Operations Committee. Wolf has been outspoken on the subject of violence in the Darfur region of Sudan, where China has major oil interests. Smith has introduced the Global Online Freedom Act which would prohibit U.S. Internet companies from cooperating with countries such as China that restrict information about human rights and democracy on the Internet.
The annual review of the United States government computers and security make for sobering reading. In particular, several government agencies that you would think should be most secure are in not in fact. Rather than approach the hacks, which are not difficult, as a law-breaking issue the U.S. should counter the Chinese efforts in covert actions. The lethargic and tedious law enforcement strategy did not work when confronting the main threat to the U.S. in the 1990s--al-Qaeda--and this effort will not work now. The Air Force has finally and recently developed a Cyber-warfare center and this initiative should move forward with all deliberate speed.
Security concerns about China have arisen before. There was the unsuccessful purchase of 3Com Corporation by a group that included Bain Capital Partners LLC and China-based Huawei Technologies Co., with the latter taking 16.5% of the company. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, cited national security concerns and nixed the deal. 3Com products are used by the U.S. Department of Defense and the access that Huawei would then have to those products' specifications.
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