China Threatens Olympics Cyber Attacks

I don't think I am as alarmed as the writer of the defensetech.com story regarding China's intentions.

First, I believe this story is aimed at the internal Chinese audience. The link in the story takes you to a Chinese language web page with no English translation button. If the Chinese government was serious about putting the world on alert, I would guess that they would publish the ultimatum in English and other languages. Piracy is a big issue for Chinese who have not done a very good job about curtailing piracy or enforcing intellectual property rights.

Fareed Zakaria, in his new book, The Post American World, devotes considerable space to how China views its place in the world and what actions would be required to make China abide by international norms. Zakaria makes a compelling case that we cannot view China's actions based on a Western mind-set. He argues that China's actions are based on individual and formal relationship, not on the pure balance of power equation. I believe China's sudden concerned about piracy of Olympics broadcasts probably has more to do with their relationship with the Intl Olympic Committee, those who have been awarded the broadcast rights and China's perceived place in the world than it has to do with them laying down the guantlet against international pirates.

Second, I'm not sure China is challenging the soverignity of other nations with their press release. China's long-standing policy has been to respect the sovereignty of other nations. They are not concerned about what nations do within their borders as long as they remain on friendly terms with China. We've seen this stand recently regarding The Sudan and Zimbabwe. If they are so adamant about respecting the territorial soverignty of other nations, why would they abandon this policy in the cyber domain to engage in cyber warfare/police action on web sites controlled by other nations?

Yes, according to press reports, China has been engaging in mapping/attempted penetration of a variety of networks around the world. But is this any different that what many nations, including allies, around the world do to each other...espionage? China is probably just very sloppy about it.

Third, I wonder how well tied the Chinese Copyright Management Division is to the PLA. Would an ultimatum from the Copyright Management Division bureaucrats cause the PLA generals to engage in military action on the cyber front? Does this bureaucrat really have have the power to put the cyberwar legions in the PLA on the war-path to shut down foreign web sites? I don't know enough about the inner workings of the Chinese government and PLA to be able to answer that. But knowing bureaucracies in general, I'm not convinced that the Copyright Management Division is speaking for the senior leadership of China. If the Chinese leadership was really serious about challenging the world on copyright infringement through cyberwarfare, the press release would have come from a much more senior person and most likely worked though diplomatic channels as well.



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by Kevin Coleman
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/004300.html

Multiple sources have confirmed that China has openly threatened anyone who reuses or rebroadcasts the Beijing Olympics. Chinese officials publicly stated they will “punish” Internet Web sites, Re-broadcasters and other “new media” that replay the 2008 Olympic Games and related events without the authorization of state-run China Central Television.

Xu Chao, deputy director of the Copyright Management Division in the State Copyright Bureau said “during the Olympic Games, many unauthorized broadcasts will flood into the market. We should initiate an “attack” against broadcast piracy.” Xu went on to discuss some of their anti-piracy measures including a public hotline for reporting illegal broadcasting through the State Copyright Bureau website or by dialing the "12390" anti-piracy hotline to collaborate with the government. People involved will be rewarded for the reports once the report is found to be true.

The International Olympic Committee granted CCTV the new media broadcast rights for the summer games exclusively. We were unable to obtain their exact definition of “new media broadcast.” However, in a statement by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the National Copyright Administration and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, they said Web sites and mobile platforms using Olympic broadcast signals without getting permission from the CCTV will be punished.

They went on to say that “Web sites may be shut down if they carry the events illegally.” Olympics coverage is big business. The 2008 Summer Games in Beijing will mark the arrival of streaming content as a viable alternative to the Olympics’ television broadcast. Online video streaming is attracting an increasing share of ad spending and many believe is the future of advertising. NBCOlympics.com will offer 4,400 hours of on-demand streaming content plus 2,200 hours of live programming, making the Beijing Olympics the largest streaming media project to date. There is little doubt that carbon copies of the streamed media will be available from numerous sources on the web and in the physical world. So it appears China has a big challenge ahead.

Are they really threatening cyber attacks on public companies, private industry and individuals? That is the way one Cyber Security Expert we spoke to interpreted it. Only time will tell. What if a company in the United States, or any other country, is attacked? How will the government respond? One thing for sure, this is a sign of things to come.

Facts:
The Olympics have become a very, very big business. Worldwide media rights to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing sold for $1.7 billion, with NBC Universal paying $894 million for the U.S. media rights alone.

China Central Television (CCTV) said that “Web sites may be “shut down” if they carry the events illegally.” In addition, a Chinese Government spokesperson said “Any individual without authorization who uploads recorded Olympic events or pirated Olympics video broadcasting websites will face up to 100,000 RMB in penalties.”The statement in its entirety can be found here.