Cyber war with China?

China is becoming known for its global cyber espionage efforts. India believes that China's Cyber Warfare Doctrine is designed to achieve global "electronic dominance" by 2050. It believes that China’s capability would have the capability to disrupt the information infrastructure of China’s enemies. This doctrine includes strategies that would disrupt financial markets, military and civilian communications capabilities and other parts of an enemy's critical infrastructure prior to the initiation of traditional military operations.

Recent attacks have resulted in deep access to resources and system architectures. Most of the data that is reported to have been stolen has been defense- and policy-related, suggesting a state actor, the report says. The network intrusions are thought to be part of a broader "information warfare" strategy that China has been developing for the past 10 years.

A new report released this week by The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted that China’s cyber espionage operations in the United States are now targeting private companies. A time line in the report also shows a series of previous attacks from within China on U.S. government computers, including those belonging to the Department of State, White House, NASA, and Department of Defense agencies. The report entitled "Capability of the People's Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation," states that: "Technical assessments of operational tradecraft observed in intrusions attributed to China are the result of extensive forensic analysis and discussions with information security professionals who follow these issues closely."

The report further highlights an attack that was believed to be China-based, where two groups of hackers worked in tandem on a sophisticated operation to steal data from an unspecified "large" U.S. company. One group worked to crack the security systems while another moved specific files onto severs. The report goes on to note that: "The problem is characterized by disciplined, standardized operations, sophisticated techniques, access to high-end software development resources, a deep knowledge of the targeted networks, and an ability to sustain activities inside targeted networks, sometimes over a period of months,"

The hackers stole specific files, for which they had gained file permissions. However, they didn't open the files before downloading them, which suggests that they knew what they were looking for. "Analysis of the operation suggests that the adversaries previously identified specific directories, file shares, servers, user accounts, employee full names, password policies, and group memberships on the network, likely during their detailed reconnaissance phase," the report says.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded that: “The commission has always played up 'China threat,” "It has arisen out of a 'Cold War mindset’. The commission should stop releasing such kind of reports and instead do something that will benefit the China-U.S. relations."

These recent attacks have brought the cyber threat to the attention of many countries. Diplomatic efforts to address these attacks have seen no progress.

In June Defense Secretary Gates today approved the creation of a unified U.S. Cyber Command to oversee the protection of military networks against cyber threats. Gates directed the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command to develop implementation plans for CYBERCOM, as the new unified command will be called.

What do you think about the Chinese cyber threat? Is this an act of war?