Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about Chinese cyber spying (U.S. Homes In on China Spying). According to the article, the US has been able to identify the groups in China responsible for cyber attacks, and that these groups are sponsored by the People’s Liberation Army. Two weeks ago US officials confronted their Chinese counterparts and warned China about the diplomatic consequences of economic spying. But then the article says,
Still, diplomatic considerations may limit the U.S. interest in taking a more confrontational approach because some U.S. officials are wary of angering China, the largest holder of U.S. debt.
This shows our debt is a serious threat to our national security!
A sidebar to the article has an interesting list of the suspected Chinese cyberattacks, which shows no organization–government or private sector–is immune:
May 1999:The U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade leads to a series of defacements of U.S. government websites by Chinese hackers.
April 2001: The collision of a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane and a Chinese F-8 fighter sparks denial-of-service attacks and Web defacements against U.S. sites.
November 2006: Chinese hackers attack the U.S. Naval War College computer infrastructure.
October 2007: China is suspected as the source of a malicious email targeting 1,100 employees at the Oak Ridge National nuclear weapons lab.
January 2010: Google says Chinese hackers breached its systems. Other companies attacked include Juniper Networks and Adobe Systems.
February 2011: Computer security firm McAfee says in a report that it found evidence that Chinese hackers attacked five Western oil firms.
March: EMC Corp’s security division, RSA says its systems were infiltrated using ‘phishing’ emails. Chinese hackers strongly suspected.
May:Defense contractor Lockheed Martin acknowledges its computer systems were hacked. Chinese hackers are reportedly suspected.
Nov. 4: U.S. chief of counterintelligence issues a report calling the Chinese ‘the world’s more active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.’
Mid-November: The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission reports that on at least two occasions hackers had taken control over U.S. satellites, and the report suggested the perpetrators’ activities were consistent with stated Chinese military ambitions.
