[Itpolicy-np] Summary: CHINESE MILITARY, HACKERS AND SPIES

[Bipin Gautam]

(Source, more reading :
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=1105&catid=8&subcatid=51#3351)

Chinese Military Hackers

Chinese military planners have determined the greatest weakness the
United States military has is its reliance on computer and satellite
systems. It has developed strategies to take advantage of these
systems. Hackers in the PLA have worked out plan aimed disabling an
aircraft carrier battle group. A “virtual guidebook fr electronic
warfare and jamming: was developed by the PLA after carefully studying
American and NATO military manuals.

There are two primary kinds of cyber attacks: 1) “fishing trips’ for
sensitive information; and 2) outright attacks that are aimed at
destroying data or disrupting computer systems. Even a relatively
unsophisticated hacker can download ready-to-use software from a
Chinese site and use it to enter a victim’s computer and use the
webcam to spy on the victim. The red light can deactivated, with the
attacker often waiting until the victim gets up to go to the bathroom
and get something to eat to steal information or attack the system.
Cyber warfare expert Mike McConnell said, “Every nation with advanced
technology is exploring options... to use this new capability to wage
war. Everyone. All the time.”

The aim of military hackers is to attain “electronic dominance over
each if its global rivals by 2050.” There are plans to cripple
satellite communications system and bring financial markets to their
knees. A massive cyberattack could leave the United States without
electrical power for six months and cause a shut down of many of it
military operations systems.

Chinese hackers began launching cyber attacks on U.S. government and
military targets in 2003, including a coordinates serioes of attacks
code-named Titan rain. . In 2007 the Chinese military successfully
hacked into the Pentagon’s computer network, raising alarms that China
could disrupt American military operations. The attack took place in
June 2007 after several months of planning and shut down the computer
system serving 1,500 Pentagon computers including the one used by of
the Secretary of Defense,

After the Pentagon attack hundreds of computers had to be taken
offline for months. Hackers also disrupted the U.S. Naval War College
network. Chinese military hackers have also penetrated computers in
the British military, the German government, including the offices of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and top U.S. military contractors.

Most of the attacks apear to have been aimed at collected information
and probing defenses, possible to prepare for a real cyber-war in the
future.

(Contd)...