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Chinese government penetrates American and other cyber networks
By karen | January 26, 2010
It is now a known fact China is aggressively developing cyberwarfare.
Latest Report shows, China is conducting the most sophisticated cyberspying.
One example, in April of ‘09 there were attacks into a U.S. defense contractor’s network that resulted in stolen data about the design of the F-35 “Lightning II” fighter system and its electronics systems.
Keystroke logs of intrusions leave little doubt that the Chinese government is behind the attacks. In some cases the intruders went to the same intrusion sites a hundred times a day. What is known is there have been 5,488 breaches of U.S. government computers, and 54,640 incidents of malicious cyber activity against the Department of Defense.
The U.S. government and private industry seem to be in a reactive role, detecting intrusions and information losses only after the fact.
China’s growing cyberwarfare capabilities aren’t solely directed at the U.S. Leaders in Britain and Germany have voiced concerns, too.
The lack of cooperation between the US government and the private sector make efforts to coordinate standards and policies almost impossible. The Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency are still arguing about which one should have priority.
The Pentagon has made more progress by creating a unified “United States Cyber Command” that will be fully operational by October 2010. Under this plan the National Security Agency (NSA) will function as the headquarters of the U.S. Cyber Command, with each of the military services putting together their own subordinate cyber commands.
According to Melissa Hathaway former director for US cyber security, we need international alliances on cyber security, better sharing of threat information with the private sector by government, and more open private-sector cooperation. More cooperation would provide a common picture of the threat and support a coordinated response.
In China there appears to be a centralized, coordinated and successful effort to penetrate American and other cyber networks. The U.S. and its allies, by contrast, so far seem to lack a concentrated, well-led cyber defense.
READ original story in the Wall Street Journal.
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