China has become one of the world’s major sources of cyber-spying. A U.S. government report (“Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation”) released in October 2009, warns that China is ramping up its digital attacks on business and government computer networks. According to the congressional advisory panel report, “China is likely using its maturing computer network exploitation capability to support intelligence collection against the U.S. Government and industry by conducting a long-term, sophisticated, computer network exploitation campaign.”
Military Major Target of Digital Espionage
On Nov. 8, 2009 the CBS News program 60 Minutes ran a segment entitled “Sabotaging the System.” In the broadcast, Steve Kroft said that hackers had already:
- disabled part of Brazil’s electricity grid
- stolen tens of millions of dollars from banks
- infiltrated defence networks
- sabotaged weapons systems
Kroft added that people who carry out these activities are “likely to be highly trained soldiers with the Chinese army or part of an organized crime group in Russia, Europe, or the Americas.”
The program interviewed Jim Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said “In 2007 we probably had our electronic Pearl Harbour...Some unknown foreign power, and honestly, we don’t know who it is, broke into the Department of Defence, to the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, probably the Department of Energy, probably NASA.”
During these electronic break-ins “terabytes of information” were downloaded.
Every government official interviewed by 60 Minutes was careful not to name the country responsible, but based on the evidence elsewhere it was probably China.
Commerce Targeted by Cyber-Spies
Writing in the Wall Street Journal (Oct. 23, 2009), Siobhan Gorman quotes that congressional report on Chinese cyber-spying as describing a carefully planned attack on one U.S. high-technology company. The report does not name the company but says it “was just one of several successfully penetrated by a campaign of cyber-espionage.”
Gorman adds that Chinese cyber-spies “steal $40 billion to $50 billion in intellectual property from U.S. organizations each year.”
Group Uncovers Malware on Government Networks
Meanwhile, a group of researchers at Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies unravelled what the Globe and Mail (March 30, 2009) described as “the most politically explosive cyber-spy network in the world.”
They called the network GhostNet, and found it infected more than 1,200 “such ‘high-value targets’ as Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Kuwait, as well as a dozen computers in Canada.” The attackers also got into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations systems, the Asian Development Bank, and numerous news organizations.
Rafal Rohozinski and Ron Diebert, two members of the team that exposed GhostNet wrote in the Globe and Mail (March 30, 2009), “the attacker (s)’ IP addresses we examined trace back in at least several instances to Hainan Island, home of the Lingshui signals intelligence facility and the Third Technical Department of the Peoples’ Liberation Army.”
GhostNet had inserted malicious software onto sensitive government computers that allowed its operators to read secret documents.
Everybody is Engaged in Cyber-warfare
The Chinese government immediately labelled the exposure of GhostNet as “lies.”
Besides, the United States and its Western allies are obviously up to the same tricks. Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes asked Jim Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, how much cyber-spying was the United States doing.
“We're in the top of the league…We’re as good as any,” Lewis said.
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