Introduction
Contrary to the ongoing speculation about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria being the major threat to the US cyberspace, China is still considered the United States’ biggest cyber enemy. ISIS simply does not have the technical capabilities to pull off a cyber-attack against the US interests (Jackson Higgins, 2014), whereas for China, “cyberwarfare is of critical and vital importance” (Bernik, 2014).
Main body
Although the Chinese traditional army is the biggest in the world, this does not grant it superiority over “the technologically developed armies, such as the U.S. army, and any other enemy that is financially and technologically better equipped”, which results in the offsetting on the world-web battlefield (Bernik, 2014). The biggest success of Chinese cyber-terrorists so far has been Operation Shady RAT. RAT (remote access tool) is a type of Trojan able to activate webcams and conduct audio and video surveillance, search for and exfiltrate sensitive documents, and initiate keylogging to capture usernames and passwords (Carr, 2011). The most massive cyber-attack in history, the Operation Shady Rat was registered in 2011; it affected 72 organizations, including the governmental networks of the US (49 organizations), Canada, India, South Korea and other countries, the United Nations, the International Olympic Committee, the ASEAN, and the companies executing military orders. The daring cybercrime was reported by McAfee, which occupies a leading position in the market of information security. According to the company experts, the attack began in the summer of 2006 and continued for five years. The hackers even had access to the confidential materials of the United Nations Secretariat, Geneva. According to Dmitri Alperovich (2011), Vice President of Threat Research at McAfee, “every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be short), with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact” (para. 3). The echoes of the Shady RAT attack can be heard to this day as Chinese online spies keep hacking the American targets.
In early July, summer 2015, US officials announced that unknown hackers managed to gain unauthorized access to personal data of more than 25 million people, including former and current government employees. As reported by Trend Micro, the world leader in data protection on the Internet, numerous U.S.-based security tech-intensive companies were hacked and continuously monitored from 2013 until this year. More alarming reports inform that by cracking the computer systems of military agencies in late May, the Chinese hackers managed to gain access to the secret developments of advanced weapons, including the drawings of the Patriot missile, the newest version of Aegis multi-functional missile defense system, the F-18 Black Hawk helicopter, and the F-35 fighter aircraft. All these attacks are attributed to a particular division of Chinese cyberwarriors. According to Bernik, it is called the Blue Army and consists of a team of 30 best-skilled hackers. “Officially, the mission of the Blue Army is to protect China against external Internet attacks, but they should not initiate attacks themselves” (Bernik, 2014).
There are various steps to be taken to address the situation. The negotiations between the heads of the US and China, Obama and Xi Jinping respectively, aimed at forcing China to admit the existence of the problem of hacking, has proven to be ineffective. The Chinese authorities reject all the accusations, claiming that hacking is considered a criminal offense in China, with cybercrimes being “covered by a scope of laws and regulations with a comprehensive nature” (Oh & Lee, 2014). In this regard, a need exists for a combat-ready unit for the efficient conduct of cyberwar.
Such unit is the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), part of the United States Department of Defense. The USCYBERCOM strategy is based on the Five Pillars, that is, the five strategic goals: a) build and maintain ready forces and capabilities to conduct cyberspace operations; b) defend the DoD information network, secure DoD data, and mitigate risks to DoD missions; c) be prepared to defend the U.S. homeland and U.S. vital interests from disruptive or destructive cyberattacks of significant consequence; d) build and maintain viable cyber options and plan to use those options to control conflict escalation and to shape the conflict environment at all stages; and e) build and maintain robust international alliances and partnerships to deter shared threats and increase international security and stability (Department of Defense, 2011). Response measures against Beijing may include obtaining information about the Chinese government, which is as valuable as the information stolen from the US, as well as attempting to hack the Great Chinese firewall, a system that restricts access within the Chinese segment of the Internet.
Conclusion
Washington would demonstrate to Beijing that the PRC system of control over the dissidents might be put at risk should the hacker attacks continue. However, the US administration is in no hurry to invade the Chinese electronic network, as it is aware that any hacker counterattack on its part can result in an escalation of the cyber conflict between the two countries.
References
Alperovich, D. (2011). McAfee: Operation Shady RAT Revealed. Web.
Bernik, I. (2014). Cybercrime and Cyber Warfare. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Carr, J. (2011). Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Department of Defense. (2011). Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace. Web.
Jackson Higgins, K. (2014). ISIS Cyber Threat to the US under Debate. Web.
Oh, S., & Lee, K. (2014). The Need for Specific Penalties for Hacking in Criminal Law. The Scientific World Journal, 2014, 1-6. Web.