China Says It Lacks Skills To Hack US Systems 507
ScentCone writes "A spokesman for China's foreign ministry says that — China being the 'developing nation' that it is — he doubts that his country has the sophistication to hack foreign systems. This in response to statements by two congressmen regarding apparent probing by China-based crackers into congressional systems for information about communication between US officials and activists in China."
China lacks the skills? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, right (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bald face liars. (Score:2, Insightful)
Apparentely this foreign minister needs to go back to Marketing 101 - he missed the week where "how to lie convincingly" was taught.
Re:Beowulf Cluster (Score:2, Insightful)
If they're not sophisticated enough (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Considering the age of China.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Could have fooled me.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think your point (intentional or not) is in fact quite valid. In a country of billions how could there not be at least a few with the innate talent needed to accomplish this?
Given, skill and talent are seperate but related things - talent you have or don't, skill you use or lose - yet with the right amount of inherent ability and the drive to learn, what isn't possible?
Re:If they're not sophisticated enough (Score:3, Insightful)
Didn't South Africa pull off the exact same feat against some NATO naval forces during an exercise?
If anything, it's probably an indication of just how much Western military forces oversell the effectiveness of high-tech toys.
Re:Oh come on. (Score:3, Insightful)
Are the target systems largely running stock versions of Windows?
*check*
------
For those that consider this Microsoft bashing substitute the following:
Are the target systems running large, complex, "user friendly" operating systems with more permutations of options than you can shake a stick at and lots of known vulnerabilities that can only be fixed by downloading updates from a commercial source who is picky about who is allowed to download those updates?
*check*
Re:Bald face liars. (Score:4, Insightful)
If China actually WERE a developing nation, that stuff wouldn't be so bad. But China has 0 problem throwing its weight around places like Sudan where it uses its ginormous reserves of foreign currency and military know-how to help the Sudanese slaughter their own citizens in exchange for oil.
China, if you want the benefits of being one of the big boys, you are going to have to pay the costs as well. This whole "we are a developing nation when it suits us" bullshit has got to stop, but unfortunately anyone who is actually in a position to make them play by the rules is either a cheater themselves or just so hypnotized by the theoretical promise of China that they refuse to do anything about it.
Re:South Park defense (Score:2, Insightful)
Ah, naivety at its finest (Score:2, Insightful)
It didn't, that's what the Navy said to convince people like you to give them more money.
And you fell for it.
Re:Yeah, right (Score:3, Insightful)
They are certainly capable. I have here a stack of magazines, dating from 1978. One article shows a Chinese computer designed back then. If China is a developing nation, then so where the US and the USSR in the 1950's.
Re:Considering the age of China.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hah, I just saw some unique pictures on television. In the vicinity of the last earthquakes, people lost their kids in school. A Belgian reporter was with some parents, and those people are mad at the Chinese government, and there are accusations of corruption. A local official and a policeman tried to remove those people from around the school, got scolded by their citizens and left with their tails between their legs.
Developing nations dont have a space program (Score:3, Insightful)
And using thier logic, the USA is also a developing nation. Maybe we are a little more developed, but we still have a way to go and are making progress.
Re:South Park defense (Score:3, Insightful)
China is the longest living civilization/culture of earth. I would say that they are the most succesfull example of a civilization that the eyes of the world has ever seen.
In 5k years of empire, they got to fuck arround with most of asia, all the way down to indochina, and all the way to the east till japan.
What they are answering now, comes from a culture that is very, very, very smart. Old. Intelligent.
This only is "plausible deniability" at its best. And kudos to the chinesse,they did it very well.
Re:China lacks the skills? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:whats more likely (Score:5, Insightful)
In spy stories you commit things to memory because they're too dangerous to write down. Have we degenerated to the point where you not only write things down but you put them on the Internet with a big sign saying "steal me?"
Re:Bald face liars. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:South Park defense (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:China lacks the skills? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:South Park defense (Score:5, Insightful)
The only way to win is not to play.
Re:South Park defense (Score:3, Insightful)
"The chinese will say they cannot do something even when they can."
They are just being modest.
Re:South Park defense (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:South Park defense (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not just small minded idiots, of course. Other, more intelligent people also mistakenly think this way for some reason.
Re:South Park defense (Score:3, Insightful)
If you measure success as length of existance, you could say they are the most successful I guess. I think most folks add many more requirements for 'success' however.
firewall logs (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bald face liars. (Score:2, Insightful)
...
China wants to supplant the US as the biggest boy.
...
Why so riled up?
Re:South Park defense (Score:3, Insightful)
UNderestimating an enemy is stupid. Underestimating the eldest civilization on earth, borders on the insane.
Re:South Park defense (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:China lacks the skills? (Score:3, Insightful)
More likely that our intrepid congressmen were engaged in a lengthy session of viewing some "non-work-related sites" (i.e., "browsing porn") and managed to snag a worm. Rather than demonstrate any personal responsibility, they picked the first easy target.
Re:South Park defense (Score:3, Insightful)
You have another false statement now, too. China is currently attempting an occupation--Tibet.
Re:Bald face liars. (Score:3, Insightful)
And what has that got to do with reality? More people believe in God than don't, but that doesn't make God any more factual. Get off your anti-U.S. pulpit for a moment, and grasp that the United States has been far more of a stabilizing factor in world affairs than otherwise. That's because any would-be Hitlers out there know very well what would happen if they tried anything nasty on a significant scale. Nobody but the Russians really tried to match us militarily, and they failed. However, that's in the process of changing.
Face it, China has the same aspirations towards world domination as Russia does, and I can pretty much guarantee that at some point within the next decade even people practicing hard-core denial like you will sit up and take notice. Unlike Russia, there's a damned good chance that China will be able to pull it off: they're not making the same mistakes as their Soviet neighbors. We won't be able to outdo them on military spending because a. they're gradually taking over supplying our military and b. have successfully decimated large portions of our manufacturing sector. Once China finally turns on us and stops providing us with critical manufactured goods we're as good as dead. We may very well see a repeat of the collapse of the Soviet Union, only this time it will be us. It doesn't have to be that way, but it will because they've found our weak spots and are exploiting them viciously.
That may not be a good thing for the rest of the world, no matter how much they may hate the U.S. at the moment. When China finally goes on the warpath, you'd better hope that the United States is still capable of taking them on. I don't think we will be: if nothing else China's government is almost preternaturally patient, and they'll bide their time until we're too weak to stop them.
The European Union had better take note: the United States' days are numbered. Start looking to your own defense because sooner or later, you're going to need it. Bigtime. We never went on an empire-building spree in spite of having the most powerful military force ever assembled by a single nation, but I do not believe that China will exercise the same level of restraint.
Re:5,000 years, and yet (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure I'm not getting it quite right, but Dennis Miller once pointed out that Eskimos eat blubber not because it's delicious but because it's the only thing on the Arctic buffet. Obviously this is a bit of an exaggeration (they can eat fish on occasion, too) but close enough to the truth for our purposes here today.
If you think the big swinging dicks (figuratively in this case, obviously) running China are eating rice gruel for breakfast, you have another fucking think coming. On the other hand, they're probably not having Eggs Over My Hammy, either.
Idiotic logic (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:South Park defense (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:South Park defense (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly there are a lot of us- not just Chinese, but all Asians that get pissed off a lot because it's not okay to use the 'n' word or make black jokes or use derogatory terms for Jews or Hispanics- but I hear Gook and Chink and Slant eyed or and every other term in the book thrown around (my favorite was being called "indian nigger" when I was in the midwest) not to mention the lame assed white guy Chinese accent and it's just fine according to society. Honestly as much as I am not a fan of china (my dad escaped after the revolution) I honestly think it's funny that they are kicking our ass economically and love the fact that Japan and South Korea put our tech to shame because we are so afraid to get our heads out of our asses in this country and take anyone seriously who isn't white.
I couldn't believe the other day I was flipping channels and "mind of mencia" was on and he had some rant about how stupid and dirty chinese people were and seriously, I was really offended. I mean if you were to put any other race in that rant of his most people would be angry, but chinese people *pfft* who cares right? they won't complain, they are a "model minority" because they don't say anything and are good at math (which I am not, really- I work in legal tech but have a degree in fine arts and have taught post graduate studies in design and audio composition and engineering).
Re:5,000 years, and yet (Score:3, Insightful)
And well China is a geographically vast place. Different places have different preferences for breakfast, I'm just talking about the local tradition here.
Re:South Park defense (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, that being said, I have no idea what the GP is trying to say in general... (sounds like a rant by a drunken troll on crack) But the precise sentence you quoted is spot on. The point is it seems that people assume that China, when it gets "strong", would involve itself in stupid wars on intangible "ideologies", like "depriving other people of freedom", "anti-democracy", "evil oppression", etc. That's just bullsht.
If China was really that war-mongering, it'd have invaded Taiwan already. Instead, it's going through negotiations to improve cross strait relationships (as long as the Taiwanese government isn't pressing for outright "independence", whatever that means)
Please enlighten me.