The Portrait of an "Olympic Host" -- Hacking reports raise concerns
about cyberthreat from China

-- Micky's HO: This article ended with the following notion: "Admiral
Michael Mullen, the U.S. chief of naval operations, said he was allowed
a revealing tour of defense facilities and exercises ahead of a visit by
Representative Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who chairs the House
Armed Services Committee. Skelton said that China had been candid about
its military capabilities." It reminds me the history of US - China
relationship: over sixty years ago, General George C. Marshal and
numerous US intellectuals believed that Chinese Communists were China's
"Freedom fighters" and "defenders of democracy" !! --

International Herald Tribune

Hacking reports raise concerns about cyberthreat from China

By David Lague
Thursday, September 6, 2007

BEIJING: Reports that Chinese military hackers have attacked the
computer systems of Western governments have renewed uncertainty about
the control China's civilian leaders exert over the country's
increasingly powerful armed forces, defense experts say.

The accusations have exposed top Chinese leaders, including President Hu
Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, to diplomatic embarrassment and
have the potential to undermine Beijing's efforts to reassure the United
States and other Asian powers that they have nothing to fear from the
rise of China.

President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he might raise concerns
about the hacking with Hu when the two were scheduled to meet Thursday
in Sydney on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
summit meeting.

He declined Thursday to say whether the topic had been brought up.

"It looks pretty messy for Hu," said Allan Behm, a Canberra-based
security analyst and former senior Australian defense department official.

"He may not have even known about it."

He added: "It seems that at the top level, the Chinese leadership is
fragmented in coordinating these major issues."

The Pentagon said Tuesday that U.S. military computers had been
penetrated earlier this year but declined to comment on a report in the
Financial Times that the Chinese military was behind the hacking.

China strongly denied the report.

"China is a responsible country and we never do these kind of despicable
things," said Yang Yi, a researcher at China's National Defense
University quoted Thursday in the official China Daily.

Earlier, other senior U.S. defense officials said that China had
conducted surveillance of official and private computer networks in the
United States as part of a concerted effort to gather intelligence.

Last week, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany warned at a joint news
conference with Wen in Beijing that the two countries should observe "a
set of game rules," referring to reports that hackers linked to the
Chinese military had attacked computers in her Berlin office and other
German government departments.

Wen did not dispute that the reported hacking took place but attempted
to distance the Chinese government from the accusations and promised to
cooperate with international efforts to combat computer crime.

There have also been reports that Chinese hackers have attacked
government departments in Britain.

Outside the secretive party and government bureaucracy in China, little
is known about the ties between the civilian leadership and the
sprawling, 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army.

As Hu attempts to consolidate his power ahead of the important 17th
Party Congress expected to be held in October, doubts remain that he
exercises the same control over the military as earlier Communist leaders.

These doubts were heightened when the Chinese military shot down an
obsolete weather satellite in January, seemingly without informing the
civilian bureaucracy in advance of what was clearly a provocative move
that drew widespread international protest.

Some foreign analysts suspect that it is difficult for the civilian
leadership to keep track of cyber warfare research and development
because it is not centralized under a single military or intelligence
command.

In addition, Behm said that circumstantial evidence suggested that China
tolerated individuals or organizations outside the government attempting
to hack into foreign computers.

"If an 18-year-old hacker sitting in a two-bedroom apartment in Shanghai
is able to get into a Pentagon mainframe, he gets a big prize," Behm said.

Western military analysts say that Chinese military thinkers have been
open about the potential importance of cyber warfare in any future
conflict with advanced military powers including the United States.

In journals and military publications, Chinese defense analysts have
noted that computers are a crucial link in military command, control and
intelligence networks.

Computers relay communications, control guidance and navigation systems
and even form the backbone of complex logistics systems supplying food,
fuel and ammunition to military forces.

These networks are even more important to militaries like that of the
United States, with bases and facilities spread all over the globe.

In a conflict, attacking these systems with viruses, false information
or intelligence-gathering software could partially offset the
considerable U.S. advantage in technology and firepower, Chinese
analysts say.

They also argue that the U.S. military's reliance on civilian computing
and communication networks heightens the vulnerability of these systems
to attack.

"Chinese strategists claim that computer network attacks are likely to
have a high degree of success in disrupting U.S. military operations, in
part because military information systems are connected to commercial
lines," said a recent Rand Corporation study on Chinese military strategy.

But, some analysts note that clumsy or ill-timed efforts to hack into
foreign computer networks could be counter-productive.

Foreign powers including the United States could tighten computer
security and intensify efforts to develop countermeasures, including
attacks on Chinese networks.

And it could deepen suspicion about the reasons for China's prolonged
and rapid military build-up.

Double-digit increases in annual military spending over most of the past
15 years have allowed China to deploy increasingly advanced missiles,
tanks, warships and strike aircraft while improving the professionalism
and training of troops in the world's biggest standing military.

Defense spending this year increased by 17.8 percent to about $45
billion, Beijing announced in March, but some foreign military analysts
estimate that real military outlays could be three times higher.

In what appears to be a response to widespread complaints about a lack
of transparency in China's military, Beijing this month allowed two
senior visiting U.S. officials what they said was unprecedented access
to the Chinese military.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the U.S. chief of naval operations, said he was
allowed a revealing tour of defense facilities and exercises ahead of a
visit by Representative Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who chairs the
House Armed Services Committee.

Skelton said that China had been candid about its military capabilities.

On Sunday, China announced that it would provide the United Nations with
information on its defense spending for the first time in a decade.

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