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China Crafts Cyberweapons
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."
not so much war as it is to prevent the US or other capitalist/democratic countries from undermining their regime. china is a known source of some cyber attacks- mainly from less organized hackers but now that it will be more organized- more bang for the buck. they probably wont try to destroy our systems completely as that would likely have a ripple effect on their economy as well- they sell a lot of stuff to us and where they to screw that up it would hurt them quite dearly. there is one thing that we have that they dont and that is oddly enough sheer number- if i remember correctly we out number them in computing power so if we ever needed to we could do a real DOS attack from hell on them.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Actual attacks on US military and government computers from China have been happening for years. There was especially a lot of crap flying during the "spy plane" incident a few years back.
This is just a new battlefield, like between the world wars when everyone scrambled to get together some kind of airforce. Space hasn't been officially militarized yet because of cold war fears that led to a treaty banning that type of activity. It seems that certain powers in the world are changing their mind about that, but I digress...
Yeah, cyberspace (I know, played out term, but it's common vernacular now) is a place (kinda) where strategy can be applied to hamper an enemies war fighting potential. Not only that, it can be the equivalent to infrastructure destruction when targeted at the private sector. Yep, all that advantage without firing a shot, without having to wait for resupply of ammunition and without putting a single person within killing range of the target.
In other words, this is common sense.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123030505
As if the US haven't been doing exactly the same, since at least as far back as the eighties. And probably much longer, after all the internet started out as an ARPA project.
Or am I the only one who's always been paranoid enough to find it a bit suspicious that the big internet worm was created by "the son of" the NSA's chief computer security scientist?
I've always believed that if it really was Morris who wrote it in the first place, dear son must have been browsing through some stuff dad brought home from work, or else he wouldn't have found multiple vulnerabilities in multiple software products (see the wiki article) in a timespan short enough to use them in a single worm.
And of course it isn't suspicious that the connection to the NSA was removed from the wiki page about the worm itself (it is still mentioned on the page about its author, however).
Have you been offline for the past decade? Chinese attacks on US networks aren't some nebulous possibility; they've been going on for years. Quite a few articles about it have shown up right here on Slashdot.
As for the US's military spending, that annoys me because it gets blown kicking over some dictator in the Middle East or chasing "terrorists" who kill less people than cars, instead of preparing for and dealing with real threats.
No, not while they're attacking.
It is notable here that China is one of the state entities that enjoys access to the source code for Window under Microsoft's SharedSource program. If you're in IT for a government agency in the US, it's your duty to ask 'what does China know about my critical infrastructure that I don't know?'
Unfortunately for the people who rely on you, the answer is undiscoverable.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
BULLCRAP !!!!
1/Europe was a warzone for a thousand years. The moment the EU(actually its predecessors) was founded, war ceased. The economic bonds between these member states prevent any war. No-one in his right mind would think of a war between 2 of the member states, and yet Europe is the least militarized zone in the world.
2/the way people keep thinking of "enemies" is an outdated concept. At least in some parts of the world. Can you point them on the map? And Can you make a link to countries not involved in any war in 50 years ?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
I'm not scared, bring it on! Hope they're ready to find the 3rd (remote) exploit in OpenBSD in 10 years...
I largely agree with you. This is why I have decided to go on an open source only diet. Believe me, I am the richer for it. I haven't run Windows since the waning days of Windows 2000 Professional. I have found that FreeBSD and OpenBSD can satisfy almost every computing need that I have, whither it be a minute task or a more advanced routing solution. I like having control of my computing environment. Knowing how my computers and operating systems work have saved me from making purchases based on sales propaganda or FUD. Knowledge really is power. When I hear Microsoft's Get the Facts, I yawn in boredom and can't help wonder how many punters will buy into it.
Really, it comes down to our educational system to help stop some of the ignorance. Colleges should mandate more than just basic computer use courses. There should be a tuple of classes covering basic computer use, basic networking, and basic security. Just like some Comp and Info Sci programs require taking business classes, Business programs should require Info sci classes. If management were wiser to computing, they might listen when their IT professionals make a serious recommendation.
And maybe you people claiming to know what's a hoax are here to distract us in order to cover up an even bigger conspiracy.
Give Kashyyyk back to the Wookies
Tibet is part of china only because China invaded and occupied it. That's like saying Lebanon is part of Syria.
Or like saying California is part of the U.S.A, or saying southern Spain is part of Spain. For most parts of the world, you'll find they got to be the country they are in part through invasion. The invasion of Tibet was successful nearly 50 years ago. It seems to me like an accomplished fact, whether we like it or not.
[Taiwan] is also technically a apart of China, even if it is practically separate. Whether or not a country exists independently or is part of another country is established by the facts on the ground. It is not a "technical" matter. I suppose that "technically" the status of Cuba is unresolved because dead aborigines who were enslaved and killed by the Spanish invaders left no heirs nor wills, and the matter has never been adjudicated by a court with proper jurisdiction; does it matter? The reality is that Cuba belongs to Fidel Castro.
The reality also remains that Taiwan is not part of China.
As you pointed out yourself, Taiwan's government spent years in exile... and it wasn't because springtime in Japan is so lovely Not sure what you're talking about here. From 1895 to 1945, the government of Taiwan wasn't in exile in Japan, it was Japan. From 1949, the occupying Chinese were in exile from China, and they were in Taiwan, not in Japan. From 1995, when Taiwan finally began to be run by the Taiwanese as a democracy instead of by the occupying dictatorship, the Taiwanese rulers have never been in exile.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Thing of it is, you could probably pull something like that off quite easily now with the advent of USB and PnP. You could even homebrew something-- hide a hub in there, hook in a flashdrive with the virus on Autorun, and put the printer itself back in line. Make the virus (trojan?) quickly install itself, then hide the flashdrive.
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
Space HAS officially been militarized. It hasn't been officially used for combat.
The difference being that the latter requires weaponry, the former doesn't. The military has more than just weaponry. Military intelligence is pretty useful for the military, after all. You know, GPS, spy satellites... dang useful.
Our economies are NOT tied together. In fact, China is doing all that it can to avoid that. China exports roughly 250 BILLION to usa yearly. OTH, they import about 50 Billion from USA. They ARE making us dependent on them. Right now, China has more than 1 trillion dollars and has the means to buy some of our technology to move to a green environment. But are they? Nope. They are insisting that EU and America should give them the tech knowledge to clean up. They do not want to have an intertwined economy. They DO want USA dependent on them. Otherwise, they would release their money from being tied to ours.
In addition, another big issue is that China is creating a generation that will have 10-15% of their males without having brides. Chinese leadership is NOT stopping this. Instead, they are encouraging the single males to join the military. They are aware that they have 5 x the size of the military, but it is our tech that gives us an edge. But that is why China is busy stealing it, and even approaching Bill Gates to give them tech. and have America open up our knowledge to them. The only high-tech that is kept from them has either dual-use or even just single use of military.
No doubt you view it as cold war era. But the difference is that as long as a small group of ppl in control a country AND we are not intertwined, then we are heading towards a problem.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
They're tired. Tired nations with no-growth-to-speak-of economies, huddling together for a while like exhausted boxers in a ring. They're defended by better nations, so their younger idealists have the freedom to talk about Pax Europa and disarmament. The costs of rampant Socialism keep them from developing further, but NATO gives them a temporary umbrella while they catch a breather.
Don't think for a minute that peace is inevitable... There are still European troops acting as peacekeepers in the Balkans, and another poster has mentioned the French immigration problems (which seem to be growing in Germany as well). Europe is not the least militarized zone, not by any margin. It's simply the most hopeful in that respect. The US Army doesn't practice against the Chinese military...it practices against the highly professional German army.
"*giggle* Good news... I figured out what the thing you just incinerated did..."
The Chinese are the vulnerable ones as long as they run Windows. Technically speaking, the US Govt can ask MS to provide a backdoor in Windows/Vista. In case of war, the backdoor can be used to format all hard disks by a simple patch Windows downloads all the time from the internet. The effect of millions of computers in the country crashing at the same time. Or even worse, doing crazy things will leave the military in a very vulnerable position where they cannot depend any longer on their computers. Which leaves them with what??
O this learning! What a thing it is - William Shakespeare
I'm not sure if this is exactly on topic, but is anyone ever concerned about how much of our computer equipment is manufactured by foreign countries? I would actually be surprised if China hasn't approached chipset or motherboard manufacturers to implement some kind of espionage or remote control feature into their products. Of course, the U.S. has Intel and AMD, so it could be doing the same thing.
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.