Friday, February 26, 2010

electricians part of Google attack?

The University of Michigan is closely monitoring developments following allegations that cyber attacks were launched from the China campus of a university with ties to U-M.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with which U-M has a joint institute, is a central focus of an investigation into global cyber attacks on American companies like Google. The attackers reportedly gained access to the American companies’ servers in 2009 and spread malicious software in hopes of stealing sensitive information.

Analysts familiar with China’s political system and a professor who taught last summer at U-M’s Joint Institute with SJTU in Shanghai said they weren’t surprised the attacks may be connected to other branches of the Shanghai school.


University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman signs an agreement in 2005 establishing a Joint Institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Federal investigators have traced global cyber attacks on companies like Google to SJTU computers in China. U-M's Joint Institute with SJTU, however, has not been tied to the attacks.

Photo courtesy of University of Michigan

But U-M, which sends about 10 engineering professors a year to teach at the Joint Institute, has no plans to reconsider its relationship with SJTU unless further evidence implicates its international educational partner.

“The Joint Institute provides an excellent opportunity for students from both schools to study abroad and come to better understand the implications of globalization,” James Holloway, associate dean for undergraduate education for U-M’s College of Engineering, said in an e-mail.


Internet protocol addresses for SJTU computers were identified as the source of attacks that resulted in security breaches at Google, which immediately threatened to leave China, according to the New York Times.

Technology experts told AnnArbor.com it’s possible investigators won’t be able to determine the exact location of the attacks. Attackers may have shrouded their operation under the guise of IP addresses from SJTU computers.

But SJTU is essentially controlled by China’s Communist government, which is actively involved in clandestine cyber intelligence operations. China’s government has denied any involvement in the cyber attacks.

David Munson, dean of U-M’s College of Engineering, which operates the Joint Institute along with SJTU, said he doesn’t see much reason for concern.

“We don’t know anything other than what we’ve read in places like the New York Times, and there isn’t any indication that the Joint Institute, which is our initiative over there, is involved in any way,” Munson said. “There isn’t any reason to believe that our relationship would be affected.”

U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said evidence tying SJTU to the attacks isn’t firm.

Cyber attacks and Shanghai Jiao Tong University



“It’s way too early to talk about how this will affect the relationship,” he said. “This is one incident where no one is really sure where the source is. It’s clearly one of those things where we’re watching the situation closely.”

Munson and U-M professors said they don’t teach advanced computer science skills to students at the Joint Institute with SJTU, although some basic algorithmic and computer programming skills are taught there.

U-M officials stressed the Joint Institute consists of electrical and mechanical engineering students, not computer science majors.

“The focus here is really on engineering,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s not computer science programming.”

SJTU, which has more than 30,000 full-time students, is a sprawling university with a broad range of expertise and initiatives.

Some 160 SJTU students are currently studying at U-M in Ann Arbor through the Joint Institute, Fitzgerald said. About 50 SJTU students had received U-M degrees as of 2005, the most recent data available.

U-M electrical engineering and mechanical engineering professors teach courses to SJTU Joint Institute students in China and in Ann Arbor. The only U-M professor currently working at SJTU in Shanghai is Jun Ni, the dean of the institute. He did not respond to requests seeking comment.

U-M engineering associate professor Mingyan Liu, who taught SJTU students in Shanghai in the summers of 2006 and 2009, said she wouldn’t be shocked if SJTU students were involved in the Google attacks.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if students did mischievous things on their own. Perhaps mischievous is not the right world. Let’s say illegal. Students have been known to do that,” Liu said. “If they’re capable, they’re probably intrigued and challenged to do things they’re not supposed to do. That happens all the time.”

But Liu said she would be surprised if SJTU students were coordinating global cyber attacks on behalf of China’s Communist government or its industrial leaders.

“The government can certainly do this on their own. They have the resources,” she said. “Would they actually commission the students to do it? Now that seems far fetched.”

No comments:

Post a Comment