Newsgroups: alt.2600.hackerz
Subject: China allegedly trying to hack Dalai Lama website
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 14:45:33 +0100


China allegedly trying to hack Dalai Lama website

DHARMSALA (India): The manager of the Dalai Lama's computer network alleged
Tuesday that the Chinese Government has repeatedly tried to hack into it
over the past month.

Chinese hackers had designed a special virus to plug into the network and
steal information, claimed Jigme Tsering, manager of the Tibetan Computer
Resource Centre in Dharmsala.

The centre provides Internet services and manages the network of the Tibetan
Buddhist leader's exile government in India.

Non-governmental organisations around the world lobbying on behalf of
Tibetans were also targeted by the virus, which was attached to an e-mail
designed to look as if it originated from his own office, Tsering said.

"Whenever they received the e-mail on their system after receiving this
attachment, it activated in their program background," he said. "And from
the file it sends to the Beijing address and it sends whatever mail is in
the inbox."

No immediate comment was available from Beijing, after Tsering's comments
late Tuesday night.

Tsering said the malicious e-mail, which could also have taken information
off hard disks, had six different return addresses in China, including
universities and government institutions.

He claimed hackers sent the virus to the centre at least twice, between late
August and September 15.

While he had now improved the network's firewall, offices outside the
government's network are not protected by it, he said. They include a number
of Offices of Tibet around the world, which function as embassies for the
exile government.

Nor was the Dalai Lama's Private Office protected by the firewall, although
that would be fixed soon, he said.

Chinese hackers have attempted to enter the Tibetan system at least twice
before, in 1999 and 2001, he said.

The Dalai Lama established a government in exile in India after fleeing the
Chinese occupation of his homeland in 1959. A high-profile delegation of
exiled Tibetans, the first since 1985, is currently visiting Tibet. - AP