China's Cyber warfare Capabilities Highlighted in Report to Congressional Commission

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report which was produced under contract by Northrop Grumman's Information Systems Sector highlights the Cyber warfare capabilities of China.

The report also includes basic information on China's capabilities to conduct other Unconventional Warfare such as EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attacks, using kinetic energy weapons against satellites, and its use of Laser dazzling to disable U.S. satellites.

Though the report focuses largely on China's cyber warfare capabilities, it does make the point of how the country plans to use the other means mentioned to dominate information warfare arena.

The report also mentions the collaboration between China's military and the private black-hat hacker community. This is not the first time this relationship has been written about as other reports have made mention of this relationship, and have spoken about how the Chinese hacking community feels that it is their duty to help wage this unconditional warfare.

According to the report here are some of the actual attacks through cyber warfare that have been conducted in recent years:

• In May 1998, anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia sparked a series of Chinese hacker attacks on multiple Indonesian Websites.
• Following the accidental bombing of the PRC embassy in Serbia in May 1999,
  Chinese hackers mounted their first large scale attack on the White House led
  by the group Javaphile according to one of its founding members, who uses
  the “screen name” CoolSwallow.
• The 1999 comments by then Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui that Taiwan
  deserved to be treated as an equal state by the PRC catalyzed massive PRC
  hacker attacks on the Taiwan National Assembly, Presidential Executive Office
  and many additional government Websites, according to Western press
  reports of the exchange.
• In May 2001, the Honker Union of China claimed that it had attacked over
  1,000 US Websites—approximately the same number that US hackers
  claimed they attacked in the PRC—following the collision between a US EP-3
  surveillance aircraft and a Chinese fighter.
• In 2001, following a large scale denial of service attack against the White
  House, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party,
  issued an editorial in its online edition that decried the Chinese attacks as
  “Web terrorism,” and said that the attacks by the Honker Union of China on US
  Websites were “unforgivable acts violating the law," effectively withdrawing
  Beijing’s tacit and explicit support from the hacker groups’ campaigns.

Newly Appointed Secretary Napolitano Issues Additional Action Directives

DHS issues press release this morning on increasing Cybersecurty and Northern Boarder Security.

Full Text below.

Secretary Napolitano Issues Additional Action Directives on Cyber Security and Northern Border Strategy

Release Date: January 23, 2009

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today issued a second round of action directives on cyber security and the northern border strategy.

These action directives instruct specific offices to gather information, review existing strategies and programs, and to provide oral and written reports back to her by mid February. In the coming days, Secretary Napolitano will continue to issue additional action directives focused on the missions critical to the department: Protection, Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Immigration.

"This continuing evaluation will unify our shared efforts and help me assess where improvements need to be made," said Secretary Napolitano.

The full action directives are below:

• Cyber Security. Given the increasingly sophisticated number of threats to all areas of national cyberspace and considering the authorities provided by the Homeland Security Act, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23/National Security Presidential Directive 54, what are the authorities and responsibilities of DHS for the protection of the government and private sector domains, what are the relationships with other government agencies, especially the departments of Defense, Treasury, and Energy, and the National Security Agency, and what are the programs and timeframes to achieve the department’s responsibilities and objectives? An oral report is due by Feb. 3, with a final report due Feb. 17.
• Northern Border Strategy. The northern border of the United States has become, since 9/11, important to our national security. As we have designed programs to afford greater protection against unlawful entry, members of Congress and homeland security experts have called for increased attention to the Canadian border. What are the current vulnerabilities, the overall strategy for reducing those vulnerabilities, the requirements, the programs, the budget, and the timeframe for improving security along this border and what level of risk will remain once the programs are completed? An oral report is due by Feb. 10, with a final report due Feb. 17.

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This page was last reviewed/modified on January 23, 2009.