Representative Frank Wolf Calls Out Government Over Chinese Cyber Warfare
Congressman Frank R. Wolf of Virginia recently called the U.S. government to task over the inadequacies of dealing with the cyber threats to our nation. Computers in Mr. Wolf's office were attacked by outside sources. As Congressman Wolf investigated the incident, he was informed by the FBI and the House Information Resources that the attack originated from inside the People's Republic of China. If we analyze the Chinese cyber attacks, we find this is just one of the many fronts on which China engages America. However, we seem unaware of just how serious this particular threat is. The idea of using unconventional means to attack the enemy was eloquently explained in "Unrestricted Warfare," a book written by two Chinese Colonels on how to fight the United States.
A Lone Voice of Warning
In particular, Representative Wolf pointed out, "In August 2006, four of the computers in my personal office were compromised by an outside source. This source first hacked into the computer of my foreign policy and human rights staff person, then the computers of my chief of staff, my legislative director, and my judiciary staff person. On these computers was information about all of the casework I have done on behalf of political dissidents and human rights activists around the world. That kind of information, as well as everything else on my office computers - e-mails, memos, correspondence and district casework - was open for outside eyes to see".
Congressman Wolf talked about other incidents as well:
· "The May 31 cover story in the National Journal titled, ‘The Chinese Cyber-Invasion,’ reported that ‘electronic devices used by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and his party during a December 2007 visit to China were invaded using spy ware that could steal information."
· "Gutierrez was in China with a high-level delegation to discuss trade-related issues such as intellectual property rights, consumer product safety and market access. The Associated Press also reported on this breach."
· China in particular is actively engaged in espionage against the United States. I recently had the opportunity to read the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission's 2007 Classified Report to the Congress, and found the report's conclusions to be very alarming.
· "The report addresses Chinese activities in the areas of espionage, cyber warfare, and arms proliferation. I strongly urge all Members of the House to read this report, as it gives a clear picture of the threat that China poses to our national security."
· "In fact, the Pentagon's 2008 annual report to Congress stated that ‘in the past year, numerous computer networks around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, were subject to intrusions that appear to have originated within the PRC.’"
· "News reports and CRS have divulged that in 2004, an attack code named ‘Titan Rain’ accessed sensitive data files stored on the computer networks of Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Labs, and NASA. This cyber attack went undetected for many months, and the hackers that carried out this attack were believed to be in China."
· "According to the Business Week article, in 2007, the U.S. government launched a classified operation called ‘Byzantine Foothold’ to combat sophisticated new attacks that were compromising sensitive information at the State Department and at defense contractors such as Boeing, the source of which U.S. officials allege is China."
To ensure that Congress knows about the increasing cyber threat, Congressman Wolf introduced a special Privileged Resolution:
· Directing the Chief Administrative Officer and the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives to take timely action to ensure that all Members, committees, and offices of the House are alerted of the dangers of electronic attacks on the computers and information systems used in carrying out their official duties and are fully briefed on how to protect themselves, their official records, and their communications from electronic security breaches.
Given our reliance on technology in our culture and government, it is unbelievable that we still downplay, or outright ignore, the threat. It is amazing that a member of Congress has to admonish the government to take action to better inform officials about the threat.
Chinese Spying Effort
China has always maintained a robust collection effort against the United States. Traditionally, Their primary reliance has been on human spies. Given the many vulnerabilities of our technology it is not hard to understand why China now seeks a more discreet way of collecting intelligence.
The idea that China maintains a concentrated effort at spying has been brought up in the past as originally reported in 2003 by the Asian Pacific News Service:
· FBI Director Robert Mueller told the United States Congress that China has more than 3,000 "front" companies in America whose real purpose is to direct espionage efforts. Some of the thousands of Chinese visitors, students and business people who go to the United States each year also have a government intelligence task to perform, authorities say.
· Left unchecked, such a situation could greatly undermine U.S. national security and U.S. military and economic advantage," Mueller told Congress.
· They figured out that what they want is throughout the United States, not just embassies, not just consulates," David Szady, FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, said in a published interview. "Its a major effort."
China differs from the old mind set that the purpose of spying is to try and capture national secrets. China expanded this need with other critical information such as economic and technology secrets. As an emerging economic power China now wants the insider information on transactions to get a leg up on other competitors. Between 2001 and 2007, federal investigations into alleged Chinese economic spying cases rose by 12%. About one-third of all economic espionage investigations are linked to Chinese government agencies, research institutes, or businesses according to Bruce Carlson of the FBI's counterintelligence division. The idea of technology spying is even more advantageous as getting the right technology can dramatically speed along development by years and cut costs by millions, if not billions, of dollars.
China uses trained intelligence officers for collection, but bucks the traditional spying model by also utilizing thousands of Chinese and Chinese-American engineers, researchers, businessman, scientists and students. These "ordinary" Chinese citizens then fill key positions in U.S. industry and academia allowing access to critical information and technology. This method of spying is described as a "vacuum" that allows a multitude of collectors to attack a target. Although each collector may only gain access to a "puzzle piece" of information, when all the collected information is put together it reveals the whole picture.
Chinese Change in Tactics
As China looked at the success of American Forces against the 8th largest Army in the world during the Gulf War, they realized that they would have to engage the U.S. on many fronts to win a war. Two senior PLA Colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, addressed this very problem with a book called "Unrestricted Warfare". The idea behind the book was to convey to the decision-makers of the Chinese military that any and all means of warfare would and had to be used to ensure Chinese success.
Liang and Xiangsui believed that China had to expand their capability to engage in non-military means of warfare:
· Network Warfare breaking into the computer networks of banks and news organizations, stealing stored data, deleting programs, and disseminating disinformation; venturing out in secret and concealing one's identity in a type of warfare that is virtually impossible to guard against)
· Financial Warfare (destroying the economy of a nation by devaluing the currency and stocks which can cause political and social strife) The authors point to George Soros as the man who launched an attack on China in 1997 by using the financial crisis in Southeast Asia to devalue the New Taiwan dollar, so as to launch an attack on the Hong Kong dollar and Hong Kong stocks.
· Financial Warfare is easily manipulated and allows for concealed actions, and is also highly destructive.
· Technological Warfare (creating monopolies by setting standards independently)
· Resources Warfare (grabbing riches by plundering stores of resources)
· Economic Aid Warfare (bestowing favor in the open and contriving to control matters in secret)
· International Law Warfare (seizing the earliest opportunity to set up regulations)
Chinese support for Sudan provides an illuminating example of how the various types of Chinese warfare intersect. In Sudan, China is openly supporting the Islamic Khartoum government in its genocide against non-Muslim inhabitants. China has invested $10B and interfered with a host of UN Security Council resolutions aimed at stopping the killing. Why is China doing this? Oil. China's state owned National Petroleum Corporation owns an oil field in Darfur (among others). The rape of Darfur, in which the Chinese are complicit, reminds one of the Rwandan nightmare.
Conclusion
Why should we care about the Chinese hacking into a congressman's computer or that the Chinese may be adopting multiple ways to engage the United States? Because the implications of what they can achieve are that much more frightening. The Chinese Officers offer this nugget about the criticality of Network Warfare: The only thing which could be predicted was that the damage of this type of threat to the large network nation of the United States would certainly be greater than for other nations. Faced with theses prospects, even J. Saiteerdou who is responsible for the investigation of computer crimes in the FBI of the United States, said with both self-confidence and worry: "Give me ten carefully chosen hackers, and within 90 days I would then be able to have this nation lay down its arms and surrender."
The authors also talk about a coordinated attack of non-military means intended to paralyze civilian electricity networks, traffic dispatching networks, financial transaction networks, telephone communications networks, and mass media networks. Theoretically, this will cause the enemy nation to fall into social panic, street riots, and a political crisis.
The traditional and technology driven spying is part of a coordinated plan against us. As we found out on 9/11, the terrorists were planning the attack years prior and tried to take down the World Trade Center in 1993 but we ignored the signs. Will we say the same thing about China in the future?
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