Inside the Ring - Chinese, Russian cyberwarfare

By Bill Gertz
INSIDE THE RING
November 19, 2009

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Chinese, Russian cyberwarfare

The Pentagon's National Defense University recently published a groundbreaking book that is one of the few U.S. government documents to highlight the cyberwarfare capabilities of both China and Russia.

The book "Cyberpower and National Security" contains a chapter on the issue revealing that China's computer attack capabilities have become "more visible and troubling" in recent years. "China has launched an unknown number of cyber reconnaissance and offensive events with unknown intent against a variety of countries," the chapter said.

Among the most important attacks were the 2005 cyber espionage attacks against Pentagon computer networks that federal investigators code-named Titan Rain. Another Chinese-origin attack involved computer operations against the U.S. Naval War College in 2006 that shut down systems.

According to the chapter, China's military strategists regard cyberwarfare as an important element of "pre-emptive" warfare capabilities.

Chinese military analysts Peng Guangqian and Yao Youzhi are quoted as saying China plans to use several types of pre-emptive attacks in a future conflict, including "striking the enemy's information center of gravity and weakening combat efficiency of his information systems and cyberized weapons" with the goal of weakening information superiority and reducing combat efficiency.