(Chinese) Hackers force Pa. to shut down sites

[onehandle]

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

HARRISBURG - Hackers from China infiltrated Pennsylvania's state government Web site yesterday, but officials said they found no evidence of damage.

Four departments had security problems with their Web pages, leading to a decision to take nearly all of the state's Internet site (www.state.pa.us) down yesterday morning.

Office of Administration spokeswoman Mia DeVane said there was no reason to think anyone's personal data had been compromised or that any damage occurred when a hacker "got into what we would say is a back door."

By late afternoon, nearly all of the state's site had been put back online.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080105_Hackers_force_Pa__to_shut_down_sites.html

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China is our Friend. Saudi Arabia is our Friend.

Wrong.

[Deja Q]

1. Saudi Arabia might be, but it's clear at this juncture that the world should not trust China.

:shrug:

[ohio2007]

4. China employs one million hackers, or should I say "deploys"

one million hackers worldwide.
Somebody should get Bill Gates on TV for his thoughts on this.
He was promised the Chinese would use this technology he gave them for good, not evil ;)

unless there is a lot of evil going on in Punxatawney Phil's cave

[NYC]

11. Do not besmirch Punxatawney Phil.

I like him. :)

[Demeter]

2. Personal Information SHOULD NOT be Web-Acessible!

What is wrong with these idiots? Don't they take Security 101 classes?

[DetlefK]

6. ... or watch "Mission Impossible" ?

[Teaser]

3. Why do the never tell us the kind of the attack

SQL injection? Unpassworded printer account? Bueller?

A good chunk of people know how computers work and know how most attacks can be committed. I think the nature of the attack is important information.

[SyntaxError]

8. Maybe people will learn to write secure code..

It's funny how many websites do not protect themselves from stupid shit... I mean, it's one thing if someone goes in some unknown or little known hole, but SQL injections and stuff like that should never happen.

[L0oniX]

5. Funny ...we used to hack Chinese sites all the time ...we had a ton of bots running off their sites.

My guess is that the Penn state server admin is incompetent.

[peacetalksforall]

7. China and Saudi Arabias LEADERS are friend s of our LEADERS.

The people citizens are all victims - who only have an opportunity to become friends and stay friends with other victims in the three countries mentioned. But, we in the U.S. are led by some very evil people.

We had a chance to watch some of our leaders conspire to steal our vote - our number one precious ownership right.

Most of the rest of our leaders (the Dems) were in a position to do something about it, but the grand per cent of them ignored the thefts of our right.

Hats off to all of us who our leaders dismissed - we conspiracy believers.

[SyntaxError]

9. Just some Chinese folks doing it for the lulz, or is this government sponsored?

Maybe I'm being weird, but I think that sort of matters.

[RL3AO]

10. The chinese gov't has attacked US Gov't sites before. Not sure about this one.

[David__77]

12. China is NOT the enemy.

It is not the country occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, shedding the blood of innocent people. It doesn't ring the world with military bases.