The Chinese Connection: Hacking and Buying America

For the first time, in a long time ( it seems ) I find myself compelled to post in my usual subject matter. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I leave up to the reader.

It is no secret to anyone who has even minimal exposure to network security that China is, by far and away, the number one source of those naughty little pings that tend to hit most, if not all, of our computers during the coarse of any given day. Any visit to a website listing dangerous or suspicious IP's is almost always a mixture of mostly Chinese flags, a few from the former Soviet Union states, and then a smattering from elsewhere.

Thus, as a person who has an interest in this subject matter - the following news story didn't strike me as at all shocking. It did, however, strike me as something worth sharing.

So, ATS, for your review:

China Is America’s #1 Cyber Threat: U.S. Govt. Report

A new report by the National Intelligence Estimate confirms that China is America's biggest cyber threat.
The report is classified, but people with knowledge of the findings spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.

"The United States is the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness," According to the article "The report, which represents the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, describes a wide range of sectors that have been the focus of hacking over the past five years, including energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotive."

But other industries have been targeted as of late, including the media and the U.S. Federal Government.
In recent weeks, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg disclosed cyber attacks traced back to China. Twitter was also hacked, but the origins of that attack remain unknown. But perhaps the most disturbing case of cyber-espionage involves the Federal Reserve and Department of Energy.

Source

And further digging, into the article that Yahoo sourced, the Washington Post:

The National Intelligence Estimate identifies China as the country most aggressively seeking to penetrate the computer systems of American businesses and institutions to gain access to data that could be used for economic gain.

The report, which represents the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, describes a wide range of sectors that have been the focus of hacking over the past five years, including energy, finance, information
technology, aerospace and automotives, according to the individuals familiar with the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the classified document. The assessment does not quantify the financial impact of the espionage, but outside experts have estimated it in the tens of billions of dollars.

In a sign of such concerns, the Obama administration is seeking ways to counter the online theft of trade secrets, according to officials. Analysts have said that the administration’s options include formal protests, the expulsion of diplomatic personnel, the imposition of travel and visa restrictions, and complaints to the World Trade Organization.

Cyber-espionage is “just so widespread that it’s known to be a national issue at this point,” said one administration official, who like other current and former officials interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The National Intelligence Estimate names three other countries — Russia, Israel and France — as having engaged in hacking for economic intelligence but makes clear that cyber-espionage by those countries pales in comparison with China’s effort.

China has staunchly rejected such allegations, saying the Beijing government neither condones nor carries out computer hacking.

Source

The article goes on to discuss how many very high profile business, including Google, have been hacked by the Chinese - something that may be more widespread than even the government knows as many companies may opt to keep such intrusions secret to avoid scandal and loss of confidence - largely in pursuit of proprietary business knowledge and the private information of dissidents within China.

It also briefly discusses what amounts to Chinese spies living in the US.

This all strikes me as somewhat contrary. China, after all, is our largest creditor - and on the surface one would want to think that they would be hesitant to do anything to mess up their odds of getting paid back. Then again, what if their agenda never involved being paid back? What if they engaged in a large scale sort of predatory lending - planning to destroy us and take over in receivership at the end of it all?

That makes a lot of sense to me. Even if they were only to take over from behind the curtain - allowing the appearance of a two super power world to continue - thus preventing the chance of provoking others to rise up against a singular super power.

It's all food for thought.

I saw a movie, not too long ago, where Tom Hanks was playing a doctor who was nursing a sick man back to health - or so it seemed. It turns out that he was also poisoning the man even as he went through the very public motions of appearing to be nursing and caring for the man.

Is China playing the same ruse? Pouring poison into the bowl of soup that it's feeding us - so that all who see think they're helping rather than committing murder?

Intriguing stuff that I am sure will become increasingly the topic of conversation as the coming years start to unravel.

~Heff

IF you have secrets, you don't put them on machines connected to the internet.



Why is this so hard to grasp for so many in government and business?

And why would you buy critical infrastructure(electronic) from an enemy state?

It just boggles my mind that these people continue to lose secrets, get hacked, find malicious code etc from china and still can act all suprised.

Trillions of dollars at their disposal and they still can't buy decent internet security....
unbelievable.

reply to post by Hefficide


Turning your theory on it's head for a moment, I present the following: Operation Aurora: The Worlds First 'Cyber False Flag' Attack?

Could China be "America’s #1 Cyber Threat" in much the same way that al-Qaeda were "America’s #1 Terrorist Threat?"

Please don't see the CCP like a unified whole. There are extreme leftist 'factions' in the CCP which absolutely despise the US, and it's probably just those 'factions' that are hacking into US systems. I doubt this cyber-espionage is on Hu's or Xi's agenda.

Rest assured America will be doing exactly the same thing to China, but the difference is, China knows what an internet is, and I dont mean a series of tubes.

Originally posted by diqiushiwojia
Please don't see the CCP like a unified whole. There are extreme leftist 'factions' in the CCP which absolutely despise the US, and it's probably just those 'factions' that are hacking into US systems. I doubt this cyber-espionage is on Hu's or Xi's agenda.

edit on 11-2-2013 by diqiushiwojia because: (no reason given)

Cyber espionage is on every government faction's agenda. To believe otherwise is to be naive.

Secondly, China is our enemy : economically, militarily, and just plain old idealogically. We honestly shouldn't be buying anything from them. Not even crap electronic toys.

Originally posted by diqiushiwojia
Please don't see the CCP like a unified whole. There are extreme leftist 'factions' in the CCP which absolutely despise the US, and it's probably just those 'factions' that are hacking into US systems. I doubt this cyber-espionage is on Hu's or Xi's agenda.

edit on 11-2-2013 by diqiushiwojia because: (no reason given)

I'm a bit more curious as to how the Chinese central government runs. How does it work? Xi hasn't been given control of the armed forces has he?

I read the last official they had who had civilian authority and the power of the military, was simply too powerful and got money whenever he needed it for the army. Can't remember his name, was pre Hu Jintao I believe.

It seems they want to limit the authority of any one official in the Chinese command structure, in true communist fashion.