Chinese hackers rewrite rules of war

Chinese cyber-attacks on Western governments are a real threat, says linton chiswick

Revelations that Chinese hackers are believed to be behind a series of cyber-attacks on British government departments further muddy the distinctions between organised crime, state terrorism and hi-tech warfare.

The latest attacks - aimed at the Foreign Office, among others - follow an assault last year that shut down a House of Commons network, a serious security breach of a Pentagon email system and the discovery of Chinese hacking software across German government networks and inside Chancellor Angela Merkel's own office.

All three attacks were traced back to China; and the last two specifically to the Chinese province of Guangdong, known to be a People's Liberation Army stronghold. The Chinese Government denies any involvement.

Hackers can either attempt to gain access to a secure network of computers by trying to

The attacks on Britain come after the Chinese government committed itself to advancing ‘informationised’ warfare

find a single, vulnerable machine, or (as in the case of the attack on Estonian government systems in June) they can launch crude 'denial-of-service' attacks, in which networks of infected computers across the world are used to bombard a particular server with access requests - effectively shutting it down. In either case, it's almost impossible to reach a forensic certainty regarding responsibility.

The recent attacks on Britain, the US and Germany come after the Chinese government publicly committed itself to advancing 'informationised' warfare and achieving 'a solid foundation' by 2010.

The US has codenamed Chinese attacks on the Pentagon and other departments 'Titan Rain'. "The Chinese see no difference between asymmetric warfare and conventional warfare," one expert warned.

Last week, on a trip to Beijing, Angela Merkel demanded China respect "the rules of the game". Western governments need to think long and hard about how these rules might need to change in a 21st century of strategic information technology.