China Crafts Cyberweapons

MitmWatcher writes to mention that a recent report by the Department of Defense revealed that China is continuing to build up their cyberwarfare units and develop viruses. "'The PLA has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks,' the annual DOD report on China's military warned. At the same, Chinese armed forces are developing ways to protect its own systems from an enemy attack, it said, echoing similar warnings made in previous years."

Richard Clarke on Countdown

[not_hylas( )]

Richard Clarke, top counter-terrorism adviser to presidents of both parties interview.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann in January '07.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16771741/ [msn.com]

My Summary:

http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=18061 138&sid=222938 [slashdot.org]

Interesting

[Howitzer86]

It's interesting to hear repeatedly that they are making so much effort in this area. The obvious target is the United States, though they could effectively attack our allies as well.

Coupled with anti-satellite weapons and a developing blue water navy - One could say they are preparing for conquest.

The rewards are enormous. China could completely destroy our networks and economy in a single day with a well coordinated strike.

That's not enough time to move our forces and fight back.

What is DOD doing? Spying on their citizens and making life a living hell for Iraqis.

Re:And that's exactly why....

[andrewjhall]

If you believe that a Chinese hacker couldn't hack into one of a few million PCs outside of China and then attack you from there, you're probably not giving them enough credit...

Solution to Cyberwarfare

[unlametheweak]

There is an easy solution to cyberwarfare. Just don't keep important parts of your information infrastructure connected to the Internet; and always have offline backups. If people (especially businesses and government) rely too heavily on one medium (like the Internet) then it will become an obvious target. If worse came to worse, we could always just pull the plug. If your main line of business is related to the Internet, then you need to think of contingencies, like at the very least having VPNs for your customers/clients to use.

If people, businesses, governments, or armies cannot function without the Internet, then things have gone to far. I do however believe that the cyberwarefare concept is more hyperbole than a real threat. If I couldn't read Slashdot because of some Chinese government DoS attack, it would be sad for me, but it would not be the end of the world. And remember: the Internet as it is was designed for redundancy and routing around communication problems.

Re:Haha. And the US does not do this ?

[readin]

I am pretty sure the following "news" could be read somewhen in China

"'The US has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks,' the annual PLA Defense departement report on USA's military warned. At the same, US armed forces are developing ways to protect its own systems from an enemy attack, it said, echoing similar warnings made in previous years."

On the other hand, you wouldn't find this "The main focus of USA's military modernization efforts are Taiwan". You see, Taiwan isn't developing nuclear weapons and doesn't support terrorism. Instead, Taiwan is a democratic country where human rights are respected. Taiwan is a threat to no one.

If China weren't regularly threatening to its empire through invasion, people wouldn't be so concerned about their military modernization. But the sad fact is that China frequently threatens to invade Taiwan, and has even tried to use missile tests in Taiwanese waters, disrupting commercial shipping to and from major Taiwanese ports, to intimidate Taiwanese voters during Taiwanese presidential elections.

Re:"Crafting Cyber-Weapons"

[Starayo]

Generals, of course.

This was the first thing I thought of too.

Re:OH NOES!

[readin]

Taiwan is part of China. Just because the British held onto it for a little longer than other former possessions does not make it an independent country since it was part of China that was taken by foreign powers, and now China is free from them. Cultural differences from longer occupation do not mean anything except that it is two systems in one country. At least the Chinese are honest in their descriptions of things.

You seem very confused. Taiwan was never held by the British. Perhaps you are thinking of Hong Kong, which is in fact part of China unlike Taiwan, which is not part of China.

Re:OH NOES!

[SLi]

And the US definition of "US" includes Texas, and several large pieces of former Indian land. Now that's not a problem, but it was once. What happened the last time Texas tried to secede? How about the right of Texas to secede that was explicitly written in its agreement to join the Union, IIRC?

Why do you pretend that such things only happen in China?

Re:Parent is not a troll...

[ushering05401]

Link: http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/ 28/126207 [slashdot.org]

This is the sat story I was talking about. It is from back in September. It was reported widely and confirmed by the Pentagon on October 6, 2006.

NRO director Donald Kerr indicated that the onboard spy cams were blinded... but I am not finding any specific articles that indicate if the damage was permanent or only in effect while the sat was in some sort of field of fire.

Apparently there was additonal information published in DefenseNews, but I am ont finding it right now, only references to it on other sites.

Your link was interesting as well. I had missed it when it came around.

Regards.

Re:Yes?

[amper]

'My country, right or wrong'? Please.

If you're going to quote someone, at least bother to make an accurate quotation.

Re:OH NOES!

[readin]

I think that the invasion/retreat of the previous Chinese government to Taiwan has confused issues. Neither the Chinese in Taiwan nor the Chinese in China seem very interested in the native Taiwanese population. They just want to do what China has done for thousands of years... unify all the Chinese (of course, each side wants it unified under themselves).

But the difference is that now (for the last 12 years) Taiwan is a democracy, so the minority Chinese population doesn't have control anymore. The majority Taiwanese are not interested in unifying with China, and after 43 years of oppression, finally have the ability to make their will known.

However, they are in a difficult position. Their threatening neighbor puts pressure on the U.S., which in turn puts pressure on Taiwan, to pay lip service to the idea of eventual annexation. So what you see is the Taiwanese continuing to use the official name "Republic of China" or "Chinese Taipei" in foreign relations, but internally they are replacing "China" (left over from the dictatorship) with "Taiwan" as their identifier.