China Wants Dominance in Cyber Space

Estonia suffered a series of massive cyber attacks for three weeks this April. Hackers, allegedly Russians, mounted a major attack from more than one million computers to paralyze servers or in a typical Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack.

The Baltic state, with a population of 1.3 million, became the venue for the world’s first cyber war. Its networks of major communications, government agencies and mobile communications were devastated.

With increased cases of cyber attacks using new strains of computer virus or logical bombs that can paralyze government agencies and communications, the world realized the danger of cyber warfare.

Today, as China emerges as the No.1 cyber war presence, the U.S. is scrambling to take action.

China, the leader in cyber warfare-

Since May, Chinese hackers have allegedly attacked German, French and British government web servers.

It is widely held that China’s cyber war capability is increasing. China created a cyber hacker army unit in April 1997, and it trains for cyber warfare. In 1999, it practiced its craft by interfering with Falun Gong Web sites.

Logical bombs refer to viruses or email bomb programs that destroy targeted programs.

The Times reported that Chinese military hackers have mapped out a detailed plan to neutralize U.S. carriers.

It also quoted a U.S. Defense Department report that China’s blueprint of cyber attacks is part of a plan to dominate the cyber world surpassing its competitors like the U.S., the U.K., Russia and Korea by 2050.

With the increase in cyber warfare capability by China, the intrusion of the U.S. Defense Department network occurred this June is being highlighted again. Chinese hackers attacked the NIPRNet, an unclassified web server.

The Christian Science Monitor reported on September 14 that China’s target must have been the U.S. Defense server itself. Since China can grasp the deployment of the U.S. troops, its hackers must have approached the server on purpose in case of an emergency, such as a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

The Spiegel, a major German magazine, reported that 60 percent of cyber attacks on Germany come from China.

The U.S. scrambles to respond –

The U.S. feels uneasy about China’s dramatic increase in their cyber warfare capability.

The U.S. Defense Department defined China’s recent move as a new arms race and is finding ways to respond to it. It has already created a preliminary cyber headquarters in the Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana on Tuesday, and plans to form the first Air Force cyber headquarters within a year.

The U.S. response is not only targeted at China. Players in cyber space are so diverse that terrorists are attempting to mount a cyber terror attack on the U.S. and the U.K. through the “Digital Jihad”. The immediate aim of terrorists will be likely the U.S.

Sami Saydjari, the president of the Cyber Defence Agency, said at the House Homeland Security Committee this April, “Major cyber attacks can suspend the electricity supply in the U.S. for six months. A world power like the U.S. would become a Third World country after that.”

spear@donga.com