It looks like a geek vs. geek battle is shaping up. You’ve probably seen the stories about worldwide cyber attacks and denial of service campaigns. As I recall, there was a cyber intrusion even into the office of the secretary of defense in the Pentagon and into the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The news stories in the West say the attacks generally come from within China.
The Chinese don’t divulge when they come under attack but you can bet this is a two-way street.
Now comes this story that acknowledges the U.S. military is looking at offensive cyber capabilities as well as defensive ones. The U.S. Air Force is setting up a formal Cyber Command, and it apparently will exist only virtually. On paper it will temporarily operate out of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, but there will be no there there.
From the article: "We haven't done a good job in the cyber-domain just yet. …We have to demonstrate the capability to do [rapid forensics] then message that to our adversaries. For deterrence we have to clearly identify the attacker. We're working on rapid forensics to determine who the adversary is," said Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., commander of the Eighth Air Force.
nanheyangrouchuan get off it.
Each side has their nuts.
I understand your dislike for China and of course that's fine, but at least be intellectually honest.
Posted by: Tian | April 08, 2008 at 01:31 AM
1. China is an ideological threat.
2. AB, your most recent comment hits the nail on the head, and China has already threatened the US with a nuke strike in LA, and raised the stakes by saying that a hit scored on a Chinese warship or fighter was the same as an attack on China's land territory and gave China the right to use nukes.
But the leading strategies angle more towards theater nuke strikes against the USN, the PLAN and neutron bombs against Taiwan.
With regard to WWI, Asia in that place now. Modern cities, modern militaries, backwards cultures and ancient animosities.
Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | April 07, 2008 at 12:50 AM
Tian,
It is not likely. It is also not clear that too many people (including the lunatics on both sides) want a war.
The problem is, what if a war got started by accident?
What if it got started by a "limited" clash and then just got away?
e.g. Taiwan declares independence, China attack, US rush in support, China attacks US fleet delivering war material to Taiwan, and Chinese and American troops clash....
Think World War I. Interdependent countries and economies in Europe, Germany had a vast network of colonies , 2nd largest fleet of merchant ships, dependent on overseas markets and food...
War got started over a small incident, and then it just got away.
The world is still living in World War I's shadow.
Posted by: A B | April 06, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Marvin most of the time you are shrill, but this time thanks for the article.
Posted by: Tian | April 06, 2008 at 11:46 AM
A B,
I don't think (God I hope not) nuclear war is likely. The U.S. and China are too interdependent for that. Besides, China is a not an ideological threat.
And the press tends to over-exaggerate threats to sell copies, as the commentary below mentions.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/111816/page/1
Posted by: Tian | April 06, 2008 at 11:24 AM
It is the Rodney King journalists that keep making China the cyber attacker against the Pentagon rather than the U.S. military itself. If the media had been shown the tape on television that the jury saw during the trial of the four policemen who were charged with using excessive force against Rodney King, there would have been no L.A. riots. I guess the new honor code in journalism these days is "Lies, Baby, Lies; Burn, Baby, Burn."
...................
Defense Department Responds to Cyber Threats, Official Says
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007 – The Defense Department receives many attempted cyber attacks each day and has measures in place to aggressively respond to and deter these attacks, a department spokesman said today.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman addressed media reports that a computer system in the Office of the Secretary of Defense was hacked into by the Chinese military earlier this year. Whitman confirmed that an attack did occur in June but declined to identify the origin of the threat. It is often difficult to pinpoint the true origin of an intrusion into computer systems and even more difficult to tie the intrusion to a specific nation or government, he noted.
“Cyber or non-kinetic type threats to military computer networks are viewed as just as real and just as significant as physical or kinetic threats,” Whitman said. “The department aggressively responds to deter all intrusions to defend what is known as the GIG, the global information grid.”
When the intrusion occurred in June, elements of an unclassified e-mail system in the Office of the Secretary of Defense were taken off-line briefly, Whitman said. However, the department has redundant systems in place, so ongoing operations were not disrupted, he said. The system was restored to full service within two or three weeks.
There are hundreds of attempted intrusions into the Defense Department computer network each day, the majority of which are detected and stopped, Whitman said. The nature of the threat is large and diverse and includes recreational hackers, self-styled cyber vigilantes, various groups with nationalistic or ideological agendas, transnational actors, and nation states. When appropriate, the department turns cases over to law enforcement officials for investigation, he said.
“We continue to aggressively monitor our networks for intrusions,” Whitman said. “We have appropriate procedures to address events of this nature.”
Since the incident in June, Whitman said, he knows of no successful intrusions into the Defense Department computer system.
Posted by: Marvin Foushee | April 06, 2008 at 10:39 AM
There is only one problem.
At the first sign of a conflict, the gateways between belligerents will be disconnected.
It is possible to launch strikes "in country", but the catch is, in the US at least, almost all the critical systems, military and civilian, are on closed networks not connected to the internet.
In the event of a real war between the US and China, both of which are nuclear weapons states, more than likely the line between conventional and nuclear will be crossed very quickly, leading to nuclear war.
One of the first casualties of a nuclear war will be the destruction of virtually all unshielded electronic devices via EMP.
That means few cars will work, banks and financial institutions will not work, cash registers, cell phones, computers, electrical grids, etc.
So enjoy your preparations, Chinese and American geeks, and sleep well knowing that your skills will be rather unneeded after a nuclear war.
Posted by: A B | April 06, 2008 at 09:11 AM
This is a country with a black budget larger than the total defense budget of most countries. U.S. surely had already a defense structure set up for cyber-warfare, that they didn't publicize until now. This is after all the the country with an advanced industry-military complex, and whose military gave rise to the internet.
To think it didn't already have an electronic warfare agency would be naive, of which the U.S. is anything but. It didn't get to be the greatest imperial poewr the world has ever known by being dumb.
Posted by: Tian | April 06, 2008 at 05:41 AM