Return-Path: <sentto-279987-1660-999006266-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Tue, 28 Aug 2001 06:45:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 6014 invoked by uid 510); 28 Aug 2001 13:44:29 -0000 Received: from n17.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.67) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 28 Aug 2001 13:44:29 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-1660-999006266-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.56] by mq.egroups.com with NNFMP; 28 Aug 2001 13:44:26 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2); 28 Aug 2001 13:44:26 -0000 Received: (qmail 89424 invoked from network); 28 Aug 2001 13:42:51 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 28 Aug 2001 13:42:51 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta2 with SMTP; 28 Aug 2001 13:42:51 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id GAA15325 for iwar@onelist.com; Tue, 28 Aug 2001 06:38:45 -0700 Message-Id: <200108281338.GAA15325@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 06:38:45 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] news Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Brief excerpts from a long and detailed MSNBC story of 20 August 2001 Posting only the portions about China that India should be wary of. Full story at MSNBC.com August 20, 2001 The U.S.-China Information War By William Arkin and Robert Windrem, Special To MSNBC `Machine-to-machine' battles a backdrop to EP-3 incident Ravi V Prasad ============================================= China: Info-War Superpower But the virulent Chinese reaction to the EP-3 incident, officials say, is a sign of just how critically important information warfare has become to China. Throughout the 1990s, information warfare theory grew in China, and its People's Liberation Army (PLA) began shifting its focus from the Mao Zedong model of the "People's War," a protracted, large-scale conflict, to smaller-scale "local wars under high-tech conditions." On the offensive side, according to the Defense Department's annual report to Congress on Chinese military power: "China appears interested in researching methods to insert computer viruses into foreign networks as part of its overall [information operations] strategy." Some reports suggest the Chinese military plans to elevate IW to a separate service on par with its army, navy and air force. This would include detachments of network warriors organized into "shock brigades," says Timothy Thomas, an analyst at the U.S. Army's Foreign Military Studies Office. Many Western specialists on China are more concerned about the pace of information warfare than the growth of Chinese nuclear or conventional weapons modernization. At a 1995 Chinese military forum, more than 30 high-ranking experts called for the development of weapons that can "throw the financial systems and army command systems of the "hegemonists" - i.e., America - "into chaos." U.S. intelligence has since monitored China's own integrated IW effort, including, the Defense Department says, stepped-up "attempts to penetrate foreign information systems" and the development of high-powered microwave and other directed-energy weapons to attack information systems. China's emerging IW capability was first detected during an October 1998 exercise conducted in the Lanzhou Military Region in the far west of China, where an electronic "confrontation" was simulated, including reconnaissance, interference and destruction. Chinese engineers are also known to have conducted experiments in introducing viruses into adversaries' computer systems from long distances via wireless means. Prelude To A No Contact War? Today in China, secure communications, computer networks and a nationwide fiber-optic network reflect China's commitment to information warfare, both offensive and defensive. Fiber-optic cables, in particular, are enormously effective because they transmit data that cannot be remotely intercepted, the way radio or microwave communications can. In the 1998 exercise, the Beijing Military Region used its new fiber-optic "military information superhighway" for the first time on a large scale. Intelligence sources say these and other exercises have demonstrated that China's capabilities in "information denial" are now some of the best in the world. A Defense Department assessment of these efforts concludes that "many officials in the PLA view the Kosovo conflict as the first example of a purely `no contact' war, in which control of aerospace and information systems were the deciding factors." In fact, the U.S. intelligence community's assessment of the EP-3 incident is that China viewed it as part of a larger, ongoing struggle in which Beijing's resolve and capabilities are constantly being probed and tested by the United States. Among the events that make up this Chinese perception: the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, during the Kosovo war, Chinese success in obtaining secret nuclear and ballistic missile secrets from Washington, and the frictions surrounding the Wen Ho Lee case. Rude Awakening For China, integration into the global economy poses enormous tradeoffs. The proliferation of Microsoft and Intel technology in China's national security network, for example, has been identified by Beijing as a cause for concern. China became aware of its vulnerability to computer failures in 1992 when 12 national railroad computer systems failed and wreaked havoc on its transportation system. It was "a rude awakening for China's leadership," says Mark A. Stokes, a Chinese intelligence expert and former U.S. air attachi in Beijing. Today, more than 90 percent of computer users in China depend upon Microsoft Windows products, leading many in the Chinese military and national security institutions to worry about foreign attempts to insert viruses into their information systems. Within the military, there are efforts afoot to decrease dependence on external sources of software and integrated circuits. Chinese newspapers, too, have jumped into the debate, fanning "rumors" of cyber "Trojan horses" embedded in Windows software. The newspapers alleged that these backdoors sent user information back to a huge database at Microsoft headquarters, the Workers' Daily newspaper said last year. A spokesman for Microsoft denied the rumors at the time. For the time being, a high-ranking U.S. intelligence official says, U.S. info-war capabilities far outstrip those of China or any other potential adversary. "The countries who would pose the greatest threat to us in terms of information warfare are increasingly dependent on the same systems we use," said the official. "Something like 90 percent of China's military computer systems use Windows and Intel chips. They know if they attack us, we have an even greater capability at NSA [the National Security Agency] to go after them. No one has been working on offensive info-war longer than we have." But as in many things - from economic reform to military modernization to population control - China's planning appears to focus on the distant horizon, and experts agree that their activity to date has put them on the info-war map in a very big way. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Do you need to encrypt all your online transactions? Secure corporate intranets? Authenticate your Web sites? Whatever security your site needs, you'll find the perfect solution here! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Bre3tC/Q56CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:40 PDT