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China's Cyber-Warfare Capabilities Overstated

Posted by Soulskill on from the but-aren't-we-supposed-to-be-afraid dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A new paper argues that China's cyber-warfare capability is actually pretty poor. '[China has] evinced little proficiency with more sophisticated hacking techniques. The viruses and Trojan Horses they have used have been fairly easy to detect and remove before any damage has been done or data stolen. There is no evidence that China's cyber-warriors can penetrate highly secure networks or covertly steal or falsify critical data,' the paper reads (PDF). 'They would be unable to systematically cripple selected command and control, air defense and intelligence networks and databases of advanced adversaries, or to conduct deception operations by secretly manipulating the data in these networks.'"

6 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Would you rather? by SniperJoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Personally, I'd rather we far overstated China's abilities and designed our systems to counter such a threat.

    Would you rather overestimate their abilities or underestimate them?

    1. Re:Would you rather? by Fluffeh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I wouldn't be so sure that it is the case. Given my experience with a few large scale projects, the ineptitude of middle managers and a summary of what was provided as a solution for what price, I would worry about how much it would end up costing a government to make systems "impregnable". While I could well be wrong, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if the final cost of such an undertaking ended up being simply astronomical.

      If you worry too much about your neighbour getting too much advantage in manufacturing, stop buying ALL their stuff and stop sending your designs to be made there then sold back to your own country. It's not an easy fix, it's not a short term fix, but if a country doesn't have markets for anything and everything they sell, they won't be raking in all that much money - meaning that you can once again sit unfettered on the top of the SuperPower steps.

      --
      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
  2. No Evidence by jeff4747 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no evidence that China's cyber-warriors can penetrate highly secure networks or covertly steal or falsify critical data,'

    Because governments love to publicize when someone breaks into their highly secure networks. Every day, the spokespeople for various government agencies get to work and say to themselves, "Boy, I really wish I could announce that our networks have been hacked! That would really make my day!!". The leaders of said agencies go to sleep every night wishing that they could spend tomorrow being grilled by a legislative body over their swiss-cheese network defenses. But alas, tomorrow just brings another boring day of budget meetings.

    Or just maybe they don't talk about it.

  3. Re:There is plenty of proof by bmo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So you're going to fault them for taking shortcuts instead of reinventing the wheel?

    That's nuts. Nobody reinvents wheels if they can get clues/technology/etc, from elsewhere. Absolutely nobody. Only idiots make stuff from scratch without referring to other technology and practices.

    Come the fuck on, the industrial revolution was started in the US along the Blackstone River with "stolen" British ideas. Samuel Slater was no dummy.

    What a load of crap, sir.

    --
    BMO

  4. This sounds a lot like... by bmo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ..whistling past the graveyard. It sounds a /lot/ like what US automobile manufacturers said about the Japanese in the 60s and 70s. And then the Japanese whipped Ford, Chrysler, and GM's collective asses.

    Go ahead, dismiss your opponent as incompetent. Down that road lies complacency and defeat.

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    BMO

  5. The really good hackers by Hentes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    are the ones that don't get caught. Americans only detect the lousy attempts.