A TV program on a channel run by the Chinese government appears to have accidentally shown a military institute launching a cyber attack.
The six-second clip was part of a documentary called ‘Military Technology: Internet Storm is Coming’ which was aired last month. It’s available on YouTube, here.
The clip shows the name of the Chinese university that created the attack software, the Electrical Engineering University of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The following words appear on a computer screen:
Select Attack Destinations
Target IP
List of Falung Gong sites
Falun Dafa in North America
Falun Dafa website
Meng Hui website
Witnesses of Falun Gong website 1
Witnesses of Falun Gong website 2
“The targets listed in the tool are related to Falun Gong or Falun Dafa — a religious organization that is banned in China,” says
Mikko H Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure.
“In particular, the attack is launched against an IP address, 138.26.72.17, which belongs to a U.S. University. What kind of an attack is launched remains unclear.”
He suggests that the clip may have been included because the program’s editor didn’t realize its significance.
Another possibility is that the inclusion of the clip was entirely deliberate, and represeants a show of strength on the part of the Chinese government.
Later in the documentary, military researcher Colonel Du Wenlong says: “To keep up with the pace of virtual technology, we must increase our fighting ability.”
China has consistently denied engaging in cyberwarfare.