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Militarily significant attacks from China

Peter Brooks:

MODERN warfare is increasingly de pendent on advanced computers, and no country's armed forces are more reliant on the Digital Age than ours are. This is both the American military's greatest technological strength — and, regrettably, its greatest weakness.

Today, the Pentagon uses over 5 million computers on 100,000 networks at 1,500 sites in 65 countries worldwide. Not surprisingly, potential adversaries have taken note of our slavish dependence on cutting-edge, network-centric warfare.

Last year, the Department of Defense suffered a record 79,000 computer network attacks, including some that actually reduced the military's operational capabilities. In the past, top-flight military units such as the Army's 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the 4th Infantry Division have been "hacked."

According to Pentagon sources, most attacks on America's "digital" Achilles' Heel are originating from the People's Republic of China (PRC), making Chinese information warfare (IW) operations an issue we'd better pay close attention to.

IW, including network attack, exploitation and defense, isn't a new national security challenge. Cyberwarfare was all the rage in the late 1990s, but faded in importance since 9/11 in comparison to the mammoth matters of Islamic terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

IW appeals to many state (and non-state) actors because it can be low-cost, highly effective and provide plausible deniability to the attacker. It can launch viruses, crash networks, collect intelligence and spread misinformation, interfering with vital friendly military and intelligence operations.

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China's military has incorporated cyberwarfare tactics into military exercises and created schools that specialize in IW. It's also hiring top computer-science graduates to develop its cyberwarfare capabilities and, literally, create an "army of hackers."

According to the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Security Review Commission (USCC): "The Chinese realize that they cannot win a traditional war against the U.S [in Asia] and are seeking unorthodox ways to defeat the U.S. in any such conflict . . . while building up their military power to eventually match or exceed U.S. military capabilities in East Asia."

China's plan is to develop asymmetrical warfare weapons, including so-called "assassin's mace weapons," that will allow the PRC to balance America's military superiority in Asia. These weapons are also intended to counter, if necessary, existing U.S. military might by attacking perceived vulnerabilities, such as computer networks.

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But even more troubling: Potential Chinese cyberattacks aren't limited to military targets. "Chinese military strategists envisage attacks on all American vulnerabilities, including civilian communications systems or on the vital nervous systems of our economic institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange's computer system," according to a July 2002 USCC report.

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