U.S. report says China engages in cyber warfare

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission today released a new report that it says details efforts by the Chinese government to engage in cyber warfare and espionage. The report, eight months in the making, was written by Northrop Grumman Corporation, which won a competitive contract from the Commission.

The report is likely to further strain U.S.-China relations. President Barack Obama will visit China in November to discuss a host of issues. On Saturday, a top Chinese military general will visit the Pentagon to see if more dialogue between the two countries can be established.

China celebrated 60 years of Communist Party governance on Oct. 1. The festivities included a parade of recent additions China’s military weapons. The government is also encouraging recent college graduates to consider joining the military to help solve part of the country’s chronic unemployment.

The Commission’s report can be read in PDF format here. Right click to save to your hard drive.

via U.S. report says China engages in cyber warfare.

China has developed more secure operating software for its tens of millions of computers and is already installing it on government and military systems, hoping to make Beijing’s networks impenetrable to U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

The secure operating system, known as Kylin, was disclosed to Congress during recent hearings that provided new details on how China’s government is preparing to wage cyberwarfare with the United States.

“We are in the early stages of a cyber arms race and need to respond accordingly,” said Kevin G. Coleman, a private security specialist who advises the government on cybersecurity. He discussed Kylin during a hearing of the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission on April 30.

The deployment of Kylin is significant, Mr. Coleman said, because the system has “hardened” key Chinese servers. U.S. offensive cyberwar capabilities have been focused on getting into Chinese government and military computers outfitted with less secure operating systems like those made by Microsoft Corp.

“This action also made our offensive cybercapabilities ineffective against them, given the cyberweapons were designed to be used against Linux, UNIX and Windows,” he said.

The secure operating system was disclosed as computer hackers in China – some of them sponsored by the communist government and military – are engaged in aggressive attacks against the United States, said officials and experts who disclosed new details of what was described as a growing war in cyberspace.

These experts say Beijing’s military is recruiting computer hackers for its forces, including one specialist identified in congressional testimony who set up a company that was traced to attacks that penetrated Pentagon computers.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong declined immediate comment. But Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said April 23 that the reports of Chinese hacking into Pentagon computers were false.

via - jcbot