Chinese hackers tried to penetrate our computers, says NSA

London, Jan 18 (PTI) Chinese hackers tried to break into
computers in the office of India's National Security Adviser
and some other government departments last month, NSA M K
Narayanan has told a leading British daily.
"This was not the first instance of an attempt to hack
into our computers," The Times quoted him as saying.
Narayanan said his office and other government
departments were targeted on December 15, the same date that
US companies reported cyber attacks from China.
He said that the attack came in the form of an e-mail
with a PDF attachment containing a 'Trojan' virus, which
allows a hacker to access a computer remotely and download or
delete files. The virus was detected and officials were told
not to log on until it was eliminated, he said.
"People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese. It is
difficult to find the exact source but this is the main
suspicion. It seems well founded," he said adding India was
co-operating with the US and UK to bolster its cyber defences.
China has denied any role in the hacking attacks, which
began on December 15 and also targeted US defence contractors
and finance and technology companies, including Google.
"Hacking in whatever form is prohibited by law in China,"
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu was quoted as saying.
Google had last week threatened to shut down its
operations in China after uncovering hacking attempts into
e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
Narayanan said he expected China to be an increasingly
high priority for India's security apparatus but that the main
threat still came from Pakistan-based militants. PTI