China preps for cyberwarfare

morpheusv6 · 01-06-2007, 08:45 AM

source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5175&tag=nl.e622

An annual report on China’s military capabilities reveals that the country is eying cyberweapons, network attacks and other plans to wage information warfare.
The report from the Department of Defense outlines China’s overall military strategy and touches on some aspects of information warfare in a few throwaway paragraphs in a large report. The report is an interesting read that PCWorld reported yesterday.
Among the key excerpts in the report on China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its capabilities:

The PLA is investing in electronic countermeasures, defenses against electronic attack (e.g., electronic and infrared decoys, angle reflectors, and false target generators), and computer network operations (CNO). China’s CNO concepts include computer network attack, computer network defense, and computer network exploitation. The PLA sees CNO as critical to achieving “electromagnetic dominance” early in a conflict. Although there is no evidence of a formal Chinese CNO doctrine, PLA theorists have coined the term “Integrated Network Electronic Warfare” to prescribe the use of electronic warfare, CNO, and kinetic strikes to disrupt battlefield network information systems.

Meanwhile, the weapon of choice for these attacks seems to be the computer virus.

The PLA has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to protect friendly computer systems and networks. In 2005, the PLA began to incorporate offensive CNO into its exercises, primarily in first strikes against enemy networks.

To be sure, attacks do seem to surface from China often, but we shouldn’t get carried away about the country’s information warfare intentions. Rest assured every military operation out there will have a heavy information warfare component in the future.

PC world report:
source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...1/article.html

China Crafts Cyberweapons

The Defense Department reports China is building cyberwarfare units and developing viruses.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues to build cyberwarfare units and develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems as part of its information-warfare strategy, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) warned in a report released on Friday.
"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.
These capabilities are part of China's ongoing military modernization efforts, which have seen the country add dozens of high-tech fighters and ballistic missiles to its arsenal. China isn't alone in building the capability to attack an enemy's computer systems. The U.S. and other countries have developed similar abilities.
The PLA's virus-writing efforts have been underway for years, reflecting the importance that China apparently attaches to information warfare. As early as 2000, the DOD warned, "China has the capability to penetrate poorly protected U.S. computer systems and potentially could use CNA [computer network attacks] to attack specific U.S. civilian and military infrastructures."
In recent years, the PLA has begun training more seriously for computer attacks, including them as part of larger military exercises in 2005.
The main focus of China's military modernization efforts are Taiwan, an island nation that China views as a renegade province. The two separated in 1949 after a civil war between the Communist and Nationalist armies, with the Nationalist forces retreating to Taiwan. China has long threatened to attack Taiwan if the island formally declares independence, and the expansion of China's military capabilities are largely geared towards a possible attack against Taiwan.
"A limited military campaign could include computer network attacks against Taiwan’s political, military, and economic infrastructure to undermine the Taiwan population’s confidence in its leadership," the report said.
But the U.S., which would likely intervene in a Chinese attack on Taiwan, is also a potential target, it said