China Telecom rejects U.S. report that it hacked into global Internet traffic

China Telecom rejects U.S. report that it hacked into global Internet traffic

2010-11-18 20:18:36 GMT+7 (ICT)

BEIJING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- China Telecom on Thursday rejected a report released by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) on Wednesday that accused China of rerouting highly sensitive Internet traffic, according to state-run media.

The state-run Xinhua news agency cited Wang Yongzhen, a spokesman for China Telecom, as saying that the report was not true. "China Telecom has never done such an act," he was cited as saying. "These reports by foreign media are completely groundless," Wang retorted, adding his company has always abided by and strictly followed relevant international regulations and standards for Internet operations.

The USCC said in its report on Wednesday that China Telecom had apparently incorrectly routed web traffic for approximately 18 minutes on April 8. This included highly sensitive traffic involving the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, NASA, and the U.S. Commerce Department.

"For a brief period in April, Chinese Internet service providers hijacked, or inappropriately gained access to U.S. Internet traffic," said USCC Chairman Dan Slane during a press conference on Wednesday. He said around 15 percent of worldwide Internet network routes were affected during the incident and also included commercial websites such as Dell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and IBM.

"Although the Commission has no way to determine what, if anything, Chinese telecommunications firms did to the hijacked data, incidents of this nature could have a number of serious implications," the commission said in its report. "This level of access could enable surveillance of specific users or sites," it added.

However, the USCC said it was unclear whether the 'hijacking' was intentional. The 316-page report explained that evidence related to the incident "does not clearly indicate whether it was perpetrated intentionally and, if so, to what ends."

"However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities," the report added. The USCC recommended that the Obama administration launches a formal investigation regarding the "volume and seriousness of exploitations and attacks."

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