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PRC using cyber expertise to gather US intelligence

China is building its cyberwarfare capabilities and appears to be using the growing technical abilities to collect US intelligence through a computer attack campaign, according to an independent report.

Released on Thursday by a congressional advisory panel, the study found cases suggesting that China’s elite hacker community had ties to the Beijing government, although there was little hard evidence.

The commission report detailed a cyberattack against a US company several years ago that appeared to either originate in or come through China and was similar to other incidents also believed to be connected to the country.

The analysis said the company noticed that over several days, data from its network was being sent to multiple computers in the US and overseas. While the report did not identify the company, it contended that the attackers targeted specific data, suggesting a very coordinated and sophisticated operation by high-tech information experts. An Internet protocol (IP) address located in China was used at times during the episode.

Barring proof, the study by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned that the sort of expansive and sophisticated computer resources that have been seen in cyberattacks on the US and other countries “is difficult at best without some type of state sponsorship.”

The study contended that China had made computer warfare a priority. Beijing was said to view cyberprowess as critical for victory in future conflicts — similar to the priority on offensive cyber abilities stressed by some US officials.

Potential Chinese targets in the US, according to the report, would likely include Pentagon networks and databases to disrupt command and control communications and possibly corrupt encrypted data. The report noted, however, that penetrating such classified systems would be difficult.

In large part, the report expanded on the Pentagon’s annual China military power review. The Defense Department study said earlier this year that the People’s Liberation Army has set up information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks as well as to protect friendly systems.
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