China burglarizing cloud computing with cyber attacks

Arthur Herman:

“For China, cyber-war is total war. Dealing with it requires much more than just added firewalls, tighter access controls and more sensors.”

I wrote that in February 2013, when the Wall Street Journal revealed that its editors and reporters had been under more or less continuous attack from Chinese hackers — as were The New York Times, Yahoo, Google, and a host of other tech companies and media outlets.

Events last week show that we remain clueless about the nature of this threat and about how to deal with it.

Apple announced last week that it’s been the target of the latest hacking outrage, after a series of devastating attacks on its iCloud server. Recall that Google’s server came under attack back in September.

Cloud storage is supposed to be safer than keeping data on a computer or device. But using what’s called a “man-in-the-middle” attack, hackers can interpose themselves between the cloud and user in order to steal vital login information. So while users last week thought they were directly communicating with Apple, in fact Chinese officials were intercepting their credentials.

That is, at least, the conclusion of GreatFire, the best watchdog of China’s cyberactivities. The Chinese government has of course denied it, but the attacks came from servers that only government and state-controlled telecommunications firms use. It appears to be an attempt to spy on what Chinese citizens see and say on their new iPhones. It also sends a message to Apple, that their vaunted iCloud security is vulnerable no matter where it is.

This didn’t stop the government for blaming Apple for the breach. Apple’s Tim Cook even had to fly to Beijing to explain to the Chinese government, in effect, why its own operatives had been able to hack into the Apple cloud.

This kind of absurdity reigns in our cyberdealings with China, in large part because our government won’t treat them as a systematic threat to our economy — including our banks and corporations, our government, and our national security — and deliver a proportionate response.
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There is more.

The US needs to get out of its defensive crouch in the cyber war being waged against it and go on the attack.  It needs to develop the means to attack and destroy the computers of those doing the hacking.  It could do it with malware that infects the hackers computer when it tries to burglarize its computer systems,  It could also develop the means to fry the computers of the aggressors.  There must be a credible deterrent to these attacks are they will continue.