NSA targeted China's Tsinghua University in extensive hacking attacks, says Snowden
Tsinghua University in Beijing, widely regarded as the mainland’s top education and research institute, was the target of extensive hacking by US spies this year, according to information leaked by Edward Snowden.
It is not known how many times the prestigious university has been attacked by the NSA but details shown to thePostby Snowden reveal that one of the most recent breaches was this January.
The information also showed that the attacks on Tsinghua University were intensive and concerted efforts. In one single day of January, at least 63 computers and servers in Tsinghua University have been hacked by the NSA.
Snowden said the information he shared on the Tsinghua University attacks provided evidence of NSA hacking because the specific details of external and internal internet protocol addresses could only have been obtained by hacking or with physical access to the computers.
The university is home to one of the mainland’s six major backbone networks, the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) from where internet data from millions of Chinese citizens could be mined.
The network was the country’s first internet backbone network and has evolved into the world’s largest national research hub.
It is one of the mainland’s non-commercial networks, owned by the Ministry of Education, but operated and maintained by the university and other colleges.
Universities in Hong Kong and the mainland were revealed as targets of NSA’s cyber-snooping activities last week when Snowden claimed the Chinese University of Hong Kong had been hacked.
Chinese University is home to the Hong Kong Internet Exchange, the city’s central hub for all internet traffic.
Snowden said the NSA was focusing much attention on so-called “network backbones”, through which vast amounts of date passed.
In the wake of Snowden’s claims, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs set up an office to deal with diplomatic activities involving cyber security.
The new cyber affairs office is the first of its kind on the mainland with a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman saying that Beijing, long accused of cyberhacking by the United States, has been a “a major victim” of cyberattacks and that it opposed “cyberattacks in all forms”.
She added that the central government would discuss cybersecurity issues with the United States at next month’s Sino-US strategic and security dialogue.
Professor Xu Ke, deputy director of the Institute of Computer Networks at Tsinghua University, has previously said that most data passing through network backbones was not encrypted.
Xu said most attacks on such networks were carried out by governments because individual hackers “could gain little”, as the amount of information they faced would be “colossal”.
only governments or large organisations would have the resources and manpower to “find the needle in a haystack”, he said.
译文
据香港《南华早报》6月23日报道，据爱德华·斯诺登（Edward Snowden）透露的信息显示，清华大学在今年受到了美国间谍活动的密集网络攻击。位于中国北京的清华大学被认为是中国大陆最好的教育和研究机构。
目前并不了解这家备受尊敬的学府受到美国国家安全局的攻击次数，不过，斯诺登透露给《南华早报》的细节揭示，最近一次攻击发生在一月份。
斯诺登透露的信息还显示，这些针对清华大学的网络攻击数量庞大且协同作战。在一月的某天，清华大学至少有64台电脑和服务器受到美国国家安全局的网络攻击。
斯诺登称，他所透露的有关对清华大学的攻击的信息提供了美国国家安全局进行网络攻击的证据，因为内外部网络协议地址的具体信息只有对通过网络攻击或是物理性的访问电脑才能获得。
清华大学是中国大陆六个骨干网络之一的中国教育和研究网络（China Education and Research Network, CERNET）的所在地。这个网络能获取数百万中国市场的网络数据。
中国教育和研究网络是中国第一个互联网骨干网络，并已经发展成为全球最大的国家研究中心。
这个网络还是大陆的一个非商业网络，归教育部所有，但由清华大学和其他高校运营和维护。
上周，斯诺登声称香港中文大学（Chinese University of Hong Kong）遭到网络攻击时，大陆和香港的大学也都被曝是美国国家安全网络窥探活动的目标。
香港中文大学是香港互联网交换（Hong Kong Internet Exchange）的所在地，也是香港所有互联网流量的中心。
斯诺登称，美国国家安全局花了大量的精力关注于所谓的“骨干网络”，有巨大的数据量通过这些网络。
在斯诺登透露上述信息之时，外交部成立了一个部门来处理有关网络安全的外交事务。
这个处理网络事务的新部门是大陆设立的第一个相关部门，而据外交部女发言称，中国政府是网络攻击的“主要受害者”，反对“任何形式的网络攻击”。美国政府一直都在谴责中国政府发动的网络攻击行为。
该女发言人还说道，中央政府会在下月举行的中美战略和安全对话会议上与美国的讨论网络安全问题。
清华大学计算机系网络技术研究所副主任许恪教授之前称，大部分通过骨干网络的数据都没有经过加密。
许恪称，大部分对此类网络的攻击是由政府实施，因为个人黑客面临的信息量会是“巨量的”，而“得不到什么”。
他表示，只有政府或大型机构会有资源和人力“大海捞针”。
（翻译：赶叔 编辑：Julie）
