The issue of cyber-attacks, accusations of which have marred US-China relations for months, is set to be discussed by the two nations’ leaders at their first informal meeting, scheduled to take place in Sunnylands, California.
The talks have been preceded by months of back-and-forth
allegations of cyber-espionage. Washington in particular has
repeatedly accused Beijing of perpetrating cyber-warfare, while
China has continuously denied the accusations.
The latest round in this blame game saw the US Defense Science
Board publish a report saying that nearly 40 Pentagon weapons
programs and almost 30 other defense technologies were
compromised by Chinese hackers, some allegedly tied to the
military or government.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel issued a stern warning to China
for its alleged cyber-attacks against the US: “We are also
clear-eyed about the challenges in cyber. The United States has
expressed our concerns about the growing threat of cyber
intrusions, some of which appear to be tied to the Chinese
government and military.”
Beijing responded earlier this week, when China’s top Internet
security office claimed it amassed huge amounts of data on
hacking attacks against the country perpetrated by the United
States.
“We have mountains of data, if we wanted to accuse the US,
but it’s not helpful in solving the problem,” said Huang
Chengqing, director of CNCERT, China’s cyber-security body.
The simmering US-China cyber-war became particularly acute in
early February, when US data company Mandiant reported it tracked 141 cyber-attacks conducted by a single Chinese hacker
group since 2006, 115 of which targeted US corporations. US House
Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers claimed the attacks were
sponsored by the Chinese government, and warned that the US was
losing its cyber-war with China.
Mandiant also claimed that China carried out a spate of cyber-attacks against the US in May. The
security firm said the attacks had subsided for three months
following the February accusations.
Some in the US are calling for a clear outlining of the rules for
civilized engagement between nations on the Web: “Think of it
like the chemical and biological chemicals conventions. Everyone
can make those sorts of weapons, but most countries agree not to
do so or to use them in conflict. The same is true of cyber,
everyone’s got advanced information technology, but we can agree,
perhaps, not to attack each other’s infrastructure, or at least
not to start doing it,” professor John Arquilla of the US
Navy’s postgraduate school said.
This belief is shared by a task force sponsored by Council on
Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent US think tank. The task
force is chaired by John Negroponte, a former deputy secretary of
state and director of national intelligence, who has decried the
mutual accusations of cyber-warfare.
“I think I’d open the conversation, rather than boom, we know
what you’ve been doing and knock it off and if you don’t, here
are the things we’re going to do. You can have that conversation
if you want to, but I think you’ve got to think through about
whether that is really the best way you’re going to achieve what
it is we want to accomplish which is a global, resilient, open
and secure Internet,” Negroponte said.
Beijing has vowed to conduct unprecedented military drills,
including actions by special IT-focused unit, later this
month. At the same time, NATO specialists have drafted
preliminary guidelines for cyber-warfare, first published
in March — the Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable to
Cyber Warfare.
As Washington accuses China of aggressive behavior in cyberspace,
it is simultaneously stepping up its cyber-warfare capabilities.
By 2015, the US will have 40 new teams of cyber-agents to protect
critical infrastructure from hackers and launch attacks against
the country’s adversaries, according to Gen. Keith Alexander, the
head of the US Cyber Command.
Washington is also allegedly investing tens of millions of
dollars yearly into offensive hacking operations in order to exploit
vulnerabilities in the computers of its adversaries, according to
a Reuters report published in early May.
“Even as the US government confronts rival powers over
widespread Internet espionage, it has become the biggest buyer in
a burgeoning gray market where hackers and security firms sell
tools for breaking into computers,” the report said.
But despite the huge amounts of money it is spending on
cyber-warfare, Washington may be losing its formerly dominant
edge in this field.
“You have a government with many security holes in it. You
have a corporate sector that can’t keep its information secure.
You have defense contractors taking contracts from the federal
government to provide cyber security and they can’t even provide
cyber security for themselves. I’m seeing this as a war in which
the United States is not winning no matter the amount of
resources it’s putting in or the tough talk. And I see the US
taxpayer as being at a real loss here because the money is
bleeding from the Treasury to go into this and it’s having no
effect,” said Kelley Vlahos, a Washington, DC-based
journalist.
This article originally appeared on: RT