http://www.banktechnews.com/article.html?id=2007042535CP9MLX By Rebecca Sausner May 2007 The issue of China's cyberwarfare capabilities is intricately linked to the status of Taiwan. A quick brushup on foreign policy: the U.S. has pledged to defend Taiwan if China makes good on its long-held desire to reunite with the renegade island. In the event that conflict erupts over Taiwan, which is a common assumption, "the U.S. government can expect very specific attacks to be launched against very specific military and government targets, as well as economic targets," says Rick Fisher, vp at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a Virginia-based think tank specializing in defense and security issues. There are those who argue that the increased cyber incursions we've seen of late are reconnaissance for just such an incursion. Their evidence? The targets that have reportedly been infiltrated by Chinese hackers within the last 18 months include: the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network, or NIPRnet, the Energy Department, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, the State Department, and The Naval War College. Last summer Maj. Gen. William Lord, director of information, services and integration in the AirForce's Office of Warfighting Integration and CIO, reportedly said China had downloaded 10 to 20 terabytes of data from NIPRnet, the unencrypted network the military uses for many logistic functions. Prominent Chinese military writers view information operations and computer network operations as worthy "supplements to conventional war fighting capability and powerful asymmetric options for overcoming the superior with the inferior," according to James Mulvenon, Deputy Director, Advanced Analysis at Defense Group Inc.'s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, who was speaking to the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission. Fisher lays out this scenario: Imagine a network incursion that reprogrammed traffic lights in Hawaii, leaving them red for hours just as the Chinese began their invasion of Taiwan. This could "cause a simple kind of chaos that would prevent the mobilization of American Naval forces," from Pearl Harbor, Fisher postulates. Or, imagine a more sinister scenario in which China disables American global positioning satellites, throwing our navigation and logistics into chaos. This scenario seemed a little far-fetched, until the news broke in January that China had used a missile to shoot down and orbiting satellite. "That would be a military catastrophe," Fisher says. In the Taiwan scenario military experts disagree about whether civilian targets-like the payments systems, or online banking sites-would be part of the attack vector. Some say our networks and markets would be at risk, but Mulvenon points to Chinese military writings that postulate a widespread attack against civilian infrastructure would "stiffen the back of a high tech enemy" and make war against China over Taiwan more palatable to the American public. (c) 2007 Bank Technology News and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.banktechnews.com http://www.sourcemedia.com __________________________ Subscribe to InfoSec News http://www.infosecnews.org
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