the opinionist

[Follow up to blog post, "China's 21st Century War to Destroy the U.S. | Wake up! We Are Losing!"]

Something is very wrong. The number of press stories / pentagon reports / think-tank assessments and arbitrary Joe Geek office cube conversations revolving around Chinese Hackers continues to escalate and very little notice (publicly) appears to be given by the Obama administration.

The topic is hardly new! You can Google any news story as far back as the late 1990’s and story after story reports on the same theme. Industrial and Military networks are probed, penetrated, and security flaws exploited as military and industrial secrets are ransacked and national security exposed and weaknesses laid bare.

Those responsible? The finger always point at China. The Chinese predictably and swiftly respond with the same line of defense – “these are mere fabrications to stir anti-Chinese sentiment” and “these stories are products of [old] Cold War mentality.”

So what is the truth? Surely the logic ‘where there’s smoke – there’s fire’ must at the very least suppose China’s Military Intelligence agency – the “Second [Intelligence] Department” of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – must, at the very least, monitor network activities based within their nation’s boundaries? And be aware of the culprits?

The PLA’s Second Department mandate is described as supporting ‘military attaches at Chinese embassies abroad, clandestine special agents sent to foreign countries to collect military information, and the analysis of information publicly published in foreign countries.’

The U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) annual report to Congress on the ‘Military Power of the People’s Republic of China‘ as far back as 2006 described [page 35] the “Formation of Information Warfare Reserve and Militia Unit” that are designed to “support active PLA forces by conducting “hacker
attacks” and network intrusions, or other forms of “cyber” warfare, on an adversary’s military and
commercial computer systems, while helping to defend Chinese networks.”

These annual DoD reports have angered the Chinese to such a degree as to raise stern Chinese denouncements and retaliatory ‘damaging economic relations’ threats. China has strongly insisted the Pentagon cease the public distribution of these annual (accurate?) assessment’s of Chinese Military strategies.
These very same Pentagon reports are “watered down so as to appear less inflammatory” according to Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center according to a great article last week by the World Tribune. In other words; what we know of sensitive cyber attacks are just the tip of the iceberg as a legitimate and damaging threat to U.S. and its allies.

Today’s [April 21 2009] Wall Street Journal front-page article entitled, “Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project“, reports that “hackers with IP address origins suggesting China, have successfully hacked into and stolen “several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the [Joint Strike Fighter] [air]craft.”

The article continues to suggest Chinese involvement by quoting, “Investigators traced the penetrations back with a “high level of certainty” to known Chinese Internet protocol, or IP, addresses and digital fingerprints that had been used for attacks in the past, said a person briefed on the matter.”

Per the regular Chinese denouncements, … the WSJ article lists the Chinese response as “The Chinese Embassy said in a statement that China “opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes.” It called the Pentagon’s report “a product of the Cold War mentality” and said the allegations of cyber espionage are “intentionally fabricated to fan up China threat sensations.”

If China entities are to blame … perhaps they are not officially sanctioned military entities? Perhaps instead they are opportunist (and darned smart) freelance groups pseudo-ignorantly protected by the Chinese authorities as an easy to divorce resource for industrial and military espionage intelligence? An article written last year by John Vause of CNN supports this notion with an excellent article entitled, “Chinese hackers: No site is safe” in which Vause interviews – discretely – a private group of Hackers inside China that claim payments for intelligence garnered by the Chinese Government.

The bottom line: China is a threat. Its double speak, its vigorous denials and suggestions of hurt feelings over ‘bogus’ claims by the ‘Round-Eyed Devil’ cannot be trusted. Can SO many reports by SO many news agencies on SO many attacks on SO many Government, industrial and military establishments worldwide all be … the result of naughty Dr. Strangelove types in the Pentagon and Langley? I doubt it.

Google example

Posted on April 21st, 2009 under Americans, Bush Administration, CIA, CNN, China, Cold War, Communism, Conspiracy, Cyber-Warfare, Defense Security Service, Domestic Spying, Espionage, F-35, Global Policeman, Globalizm, Jingoism, KGB, Lockheed, MI5, Multipolar, NATO, NSA, NeoCons, Nuclear Weapons, Obama, Oval Office, Pentagon, President Hu, Robert Gates, S-300, Security, Spying, State Department, São Paulo Forum, U.S., US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, Unilateralism, Unipolar, War, WikiLeaks, World Trade, counter-intelligence, freedom, hackers, journalism, patriot act, the Great Firewall •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed