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China Crafts Cyberweapons

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the virtual-arms-race dept.

MitmWatcher writes to mention that a recent report by the Department of Defense revealed that China is continuing to build up their cyberwarfare units and develop viruses. "'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."

3 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. Richard Clarke on Countdown by not_hylas(+) · · Score: 3, Informative

    Richard Clarke, top counter-terrorism adviser to presidents of both parties interview.
    Countdown with Keith Olbermann in January '07.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16771741/

    My Summary:

    http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=18061 138&sid=222938

    --
    ~hylas
  2. Interesting by Howitzer86 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's interesting to hear repeatedly that they are making so much effort in this area. The obvious target is the United States, though they could effectively attack our allies as well.

    Coupled with anti-satellite weapons and a developing blue water navy - One could say they are preparing for conquest.

    The rewards are enormous. China could completely destroy our networks and economy in a single day with a well coordinated strike.

    That's not enough time to move our forces and fight back.

    What is DOD doing? Spying on their citizens and making life a living hell for Iraqis.

  3. Solution to Cyberwarfare by unlametheweak · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is an easy solution to cyberwarfare. Just don't keep important parts of your information infrastructure connected to the Internet; and always have offline backups. If people (especially businesses and government) rely too heavily on one medium (like the Internet) then it will become an obvious target. If worse came to worse, we could always just pull the plug. If your main line of business is related to the Internet, then you need to think of contingencies, like at the very least having VPNs for your customers/clients to use.

    If people, businesses, governments, or armies cannot function without the Internet, then things have gone to far. I do however believe that the cyberwarefare concept is more hyperbole than a real threat. If I couldn't read Slashdot because of some Chinese government DoS attack, it would be sad for me, but it would not be the end of the world. And remember: the Internet as it is was designed for redundancy and routing around communication problems.