Saturday, June 14, 2008

China's Cyber-Militia

National Journal Magazine: Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.

Wired Magazine Blog: Ever since intelligence chief Michael McConnell decided on cyberterrorism as the latest raison d'etre for warrantless NSA surveillance, we've seen increasingly brazen falsehoods and unverifiable cyberattack stories coming from him and his subordinates, from McConnell's bogus claim that cyberattacks cost the U.S. economy $100 billion a year, to one intelligence official's vague assertion that hackers have caused electrical blackouts in unnamed countries overseas.

1 comment:

CWJ Administrator said...

The article from the National Journal is a lengthy, though, excellent overview of China's alleged activities in cyberspace.

The article is drawing considerable interest on the net. One of the criticisms levied against this article is that the author provided considerable space to those who have a vested interest in portraying China as the next "cyber bogeyman". The critics point out that other nations are doing similar things but get away with it because they are better at covering their tracks.

Wired Magazine has a full-length rebuttal of the National Journal article in their blog (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/did-hackers-cau.html). They focus more on the US intelligence officials mentioned in the story who are implying that the 2003 black-out of a large portion of the North American power grid was somehow tied to China's cyber activities. The analysis of that outage does not corroborate the allegations.

Nonetheless, it is well worth the time to read the National Journal article.