With the holiday shopping season upon us, caution may be in order when it comes to the electronic toys that many of us will give and receive. As strange as it may sound, you might want to run a virus scan on that digital photo frame that you’re planning to give to Grandma.
During the 2007 holiday season, Chinese-made digital photo frames, MP3 music players, external hard drives, digital cameras and compact flash memory cards sold by companies such as Sam’s Club, Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack were discovered to be harboring viruses. When connected to a computer, the devices would off-load the virus and infect the computer. Over the following months, thousands of electronic gadgets were pulled from store shelves in an effort to stop the problem, but for many consumers, it was too little, too late.
Of course, almost every electronic device that is sold these days is made in China. Because the economies of the U.S. and China are so intertwined, U.S. government and business leaders have been reluctant to connect the Chinese government to the virus-infected equipment. Many computer security investigators are not so reluctant to lay the blame where it belongs, though, and claim that the infected photo frames trail leads to Chinese hacker groups under the control of Chinese government officials.
Cyber terrorist attacks coming out of China are nothing new. Recent reports have revealed that the email systems of the White House have been hacked in “cyber raids” sponsored by the Chinese government. Just last week, Newsweek reported that the campaign computer systems of Barack Obama and John McCain had been invaded by foreign hackers, most likely from China. The FBI informed the Obama campaign that a “serious amount of files” had been stolen, with McCain computer suffering similar breeches.
In an alert issued in March 2008 to Olympics visitors to China, the U.S. State Department warned travelers that, “All hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times. Hotel rooms, residences and offices may be accessed at any time without the occupant’s consent or knowledge.” Then, in May, U.S. investigators began looking into whether Chinese government officials hacked into and copied the contents of a laptop computer used by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez during trade talks held in December, 2007.
Also in May, the National Journal reported that U.S. government officials and computer security experts were claiming that hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government and military had penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies. Proprietary information was stolen from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, access was gained to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast. Other countries, such as Germany, Great Britain and India have endured similar attacks.
Yet, in spite of the clear and present danger that these scenarios present to our country, those in the White House and on Capitol Hill never can seem to bring themselves to fight back, or even put up a decent defense. One only has to follow the money trail to find out why. Consider the following, from the website of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, written by Chamber President Thomas Donoue: “…it’s important we continue to engage China, nurture it, and guide it along the path toward a free enterprise democracy. We need to build a more trusting, lasting relationship, one that will withstand the tests of minor disagreements or disturbances. Increased trade is our strongest ally in this endeavor.”