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US investigates whether China copied official's laptop
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NewsByte on 30 May, 2008 04:06:41
 
US authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the
contents of a US government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce
Secretary Carlos M Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into
Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press.
Surreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left
unattended during Gutierrez's trip to Beijing for trade talks in December,
people familiar with the incident told the AP. These people spoke on condition
of anonymity because the incident remains under investigation.
Gutierrez told the AP Thursday he could not discuss whether or how the laptop's
contents might have been copied.
"Because there is an investigation going on, I would rather not comment on
that," he said. "To the extent that there is an investigation going on, those
are the things being looked at, those are the questions being asked. I don't
think I should provide any speculative answers."
A Commerce Department spokesman, Rich Mills, said he could not confirm or deny
such an incident in China. Asked whether the department has issued new rules for
carrying computers overseas, Mills said: "The department is continuing to
improve our security posture, and that includes providing updates, guidances and
best practises to staff to maintain security."
It was not immediately clear what information on the laptop might have been
compromised, but it would be highly unorthodox for any US government official to
carry classified data on a laptop overseas to China, especially one left
unattended even briefly. Modern copying equipment can duplicate a laptop's
storage drive in just minutes.