THREATS POSED BY CHINA- PART 1: CHINA'S CYBER POTENTIAL

According to a new report to Congress, China has reached a point where it is so advanced in cyber warfare capabilities that the U.S. may be unable to stop or detect some of its operations.
The warning came from Colonel Gary Mac Alum, chief of staff for the U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations. He was giving testimony to the US-China Economic Security Commission, which presented Congress with a lengthy and disturbing report on Chinese policies that should be a cause for grave concern on Capitol Hill.
Colonel M ac Alum said he believed China was devoting massive resources to the use of computers because it understood that cyber operations were an integral and significant part of modern warfare. In his opinion, China had become so sophisticated it could carry out cyber operations anywhere in the world.
Department of Defense statistics show that between 2006 -2007, there was a 31% increase on attacks on U.S. Defense networks, leading to 43,880 incidents. U.S. cyber experts believe most of the attacks were perpetrated by as many as 250- hacker groups in China, the majority of them under the control or influence of the Chinese authorities, who exert total control over all cyber activity in the country.
In Chinese military academies, cyber warfare is one of the major teaching topics with emphasis placed on how to damage a potential enemy in the opening stages of a conflict. In all the scenarios the target is the United States with emphasis on operations, which could cripple it economically and militarily. For example, cyber targets could be the banking system, power grids and of course the command control systems of the Department of Defense. The fact that the U.S. population has become highly dependent on computers to control everything from water to sewage, electricity and transport makes major parts of the country’s infrastructure vulnerable to a major cyber attack. The Chinese reckon that too much U.S. reliance on information technology makes the U.S. especially ripe for concentrated cyber assaults prior to, or in the opening hours of a conflict. Such attacks could happen in less time that it would take to launch a missile or drop a bomb. One of the obvious targets would be information sources so that China could feed disinformation into civilian or military networks, creating confusion. This is not a farfetched concept since most people get information nowadays through the Internet or in the case of the military through its own digital channels.
The report from the commission on U.S-China security and economic matters warned Congress that private sector networks operated by civilian agencies of government and unclassified U.S. military and intelligence agency networks were experiencing increasing high levels of attacks and intrusions. In the view of the commission, there was evidence that Chinese cyber operations were also being used for spying on the U.S.
Alan Paller of the SANS Institute, a network security company, believes the ten top U.S. defense contractors, including Boeing and Northrop Grumman, had their files hacked in 2007. That followed a similar Chinese cyber program in 2005 when Chinese hackers stole a massive quantity of files from NASA networks outlining the technical details of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Among the files stolen were documents on the Orbiter’s propulsion system and solar panels.
This latest report to Congress highlighted the fact that the unclassified U.S. military network – NIPRNet – was a constant target for Chinese military hackers. It is a vital DOD-military digital link because it handles DOD payments, troop and cargo movements, medical records, aircraft locations and all emails between DOD and military personnel. The fact that the system is connected to the World Wide Web makes it particularly vulnerable to hackers. According to the commission report, China views the network as “a significant Achilles heel and an important target.”
“The ability to manipulate or disable the NIPRNet, or to use it to disable discrete, defense related functions that depend on it, gives China the potential capability to delay or disrupt U.S. forces without physically engaging them – and in ways it lacks the capability to do conventionally,” warned the report.
U.S. cyber experts now agree that China’s development of cyber tools is a means to gain an edge over the U.S. in a vital part of modern warfare, thereby limiting the overall power of the U.S. military. In September 2008, Taiwan’s Defense Minister, Chen Chao-min revealed that his country believed China would launch a major cyber attack in the opening stages of a conflict with his nation. In order to counter that threat he had established a special task force.
One of the startling warnings in the report to Congress concerned the global supply of computer related components, many of which are made in China.
“In theory, this leaves them vulnerable to tampering by Chinese security services, such as implanting malicious code that could be remotely operated on command, placing U.S. systems and the date they contain at risk of destruction or manipulation.” the report pointed out.
One of the most disturbing parts of the report stated that cyber space is a “critical vulnerability” of the U.S. government and economy since we rely so heavily on computers and our dependence on the Internet makes the computers we use and the information we store on them vulnerable to attack. The report offered the following assessment of the overall risk:
“China is likely to take advantage of U.S. dependence on cyber space for four significant reasons. First, the costs of cyber operations are low in comparison with traditional espionage or military activities. Second, determining the origin of cyber activities and attributing them to the Chinese government or any other operator is difficult. Therefore, the U.S. would be hindered in responding conventionally to such an attack. Fourth, there is an underdeveloped legal framework to guide responses.”
Just as worrying was another conclusion that the aggressive way China has been developing cyber capabilities may provide it with an advantage over the U.S. that could significantly reduce current U.S. military dominance. The commission’s emphasis on the threat from China in respect of cyber attacks mirrored an equally important threat China could soon pose in space. The Chinese military runs the nation’s space program, making it an integral part of the military’s command and control systems, as well as its intelligence gathering. In the past year, China has speeded up the development of space weapons, which some believe will be used to establish a space corridor over China that would be closed to all external satellite traffic.
The commission’s report to Congress made it clear that China views outer space as a potential battle ground of the future because many U.S. command and control functions are operated through ground stations receiving information and linkages from satellites. The report had this warning on the subject:
“China’s growing reliance on space for military purposes increases the likelihood that any future conflict between China and the United States will involve actions directed against each other’s space systems’ assets. These offensive and defensive actions may be directed against either assets………..China has significant anti-satellite capabilities. The capabilities go far beyond those demonstrated in the January 2007 ‘‘test’’ that destroyed an obsolete Chinese weather satellite. They include co-orbital direct attack weapons and directed energy weapons for dazzling or damaging satellites, both of which currently are under development. China is also researching technology for electronic attack such as jamming, against an adversary’s space assets as well as its ground support networks.”

The commission recommended that Congress should pay more attention to China related issues, especially in the economic and security spheres. For example, more money should be spent to ensure that computer components used in civilian and defense networks came from reliable sources and that major networks were regularly assessed and protected. It also s aid our allies must be encouraged to join us in dealing with cyber attacks that originate in China. Finally, China should be reminded of its 1967 Space Treaty commitment to use outer space for peaceful exploration and not to see it as the preserve of any one nation.


Part Two: How China is damaging the American seafood industry in Louisana and on the Gulf Coast and the health hazards posed by Chinese imports, which is a matter of national security.