Posted on 06/09/2015 1:15:46 PM PDT by Ghost of SVR4
News broke last week that Chinese hackers had compromised computer databases belonging to the Office of Personnel Management. On the surface, reports of the Obama administration scrambling to contain the damage done by having this information exposed may not make sense. Is it really that big a deal if the Chinese stole lists of government employees? It is when the list is of Americans with top-secret security clearances. According to SOFREP sources, it isn’t just benign human-resources-type information that was stolen, but also lists of active CIA personnel and information pertaining to front companies used as commercial cover by the same agency.
Related Posts America’s Rudderless Foreign Policy Chinese Information Dominance: Encircling America with Weaponized Technology The Harmonious Fist of China: Artifacts How Technology is Changing the Future of Espionage Too Hollywood to Believe: Delta’s Raid Against ISIS in Syria State-sponsored Chinese hackers have been breaking into American computer networks for decades now, with the information stolen usually being attributed by the press as being information gathered for identity theft, fraud, or in some cases, industrial espionage. No big deal if some Americans lose money from their bank accounts, after all it is insured by the federal government. The damage done by industrial espionage is not readily apparent either, since it will be years until we see Chinese stealth fighters developed with stolen American technology.
By hacking into American computer systems over and over again, the People’s Republic of China has probed our defenses to assess what the U.S. government will do in response to cyber-intrusions. The answer? Not a damn thing. We will not respond to cyber attacks with cyber-retaliation, military force, economic sanctions, or even sternly worded diplomatic letters. We probably should have unrolled the red carpet for China’s hackers and told them that we are just fine with them stealing our data. Our limp-wristed politicians are too afraid of upsetting our economic relations with China to do anything about it.
But the reality is that China’s hackers are not stealing personal identification information from police departments, large corporations, and the federal government for purposes of committing fraud. The real reason is far more insidious. This is actually the information-gathering process the Chinese are conducting as a part of what the U.S. military would call operational preparation of the environment (OPE) also known as operational preparation of the battlespace (OPB).
OPE is setting the conditions for success prior to the initiation of open military hostilities between two belligerent nations who plan to go to war. More specifically, OPE entails sending in intelligence service personnel to recruit rings of spies, burying caches of weapons and equipment, and developing targeting information for people and critical infrastructure. Operational preparation of the environment could even include assassinating key personalities in order to remove them prior to D-Day in a war that hasn’t happened yet.
China’s hackers are, in fact, conducting OPE—preparing the battlefield for a war that has not happened yet. To understand why, you have to first understand China’s strategy.
China’s strategy The Chinese government has deceived the Western world into believing that they are a friend and ally, one that will eventually transition into a democratic state. The reality is that China fully intends to surpass the United States economically, and then militarily. They also have no interest in becoming a democracy. The PRC’s long-term goal is to become a Ba, which translates as “tyrant.” More accurately, they wish to become a hegemon. While China makes overtures of integrating into the existing global order, the truth is that China seeks to become a revisionist power. Revealing this strategy now would be devastating, as it could lead to an open military confrontation with the West, “unraveling years of patient assiduous efforts to build China into a economical and geopolitical hegemon” (Pillsbury, 136).
Humiliations at the hands of the West still burn deep with China’s hawks, the ying pai. These feelings of humiliation and nationalism have motivated them to develop an anti-Western doctrine, humorously enough based around the writings of people like Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley (Pillsbury, 18). These Chinese elites are said to refer to the ancient proverb, tao guang yang hui, which means to bide your time and build your capabilities. However, another translation is, “overturning the old hegemon and exacting revenge” (Pillsbury, 33).
In order to jump several generations ahead of America, the Chinese have developed crash weapons technology programs in secret, hacked into critical American infrastructure, and fooled the West into supporting their economy. To this end, the Chinese seek to develop da tong or “an era of unipolar dominance” (Pillsbury, 39), which is a far cry from the multi-polar world we talk about here at SOFREP. These Chinese elites see the geo-political chessboard as a zero-sum game, with cooperation being nothing more than a facade to get what they secretly want.
chinasof2 Much of Chinese strategy is derived from the period of the Warring States, China’s medieval era. While there is no direct comparison, the chronicles of the Warring States period have their best analog in Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” The Warring States period produces axioms and strategy for the Chinese military and elite class.
China knows full well that they are in no state to challenge America in a direct military confrontation, so in order to gain an advantage, the People’s Liberation Army is developing a series of secret weapons referred to as shashoujian or “Assassin’s Mace,” a term derived from Chinese folklore. Known as program 863, China’s secret weapons programs include anti-satellite weapons, directed-energy platforms, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, anti-aircraft carrier missiles, and various forms of electronic and cyber warfare (Pillsbury, 139). Initiated in 1986 by Deng Xiaoping, it was reevaluated in 2001 “with the help of foreign experts and widened to support China’s competitiveness in international markets” (Hannas, 12).
That’s right, foreign experts. China is developing the technologies to defeat us, and they are doing it with the nearly full complacency and acquiescence of the West. Not only are they developing these weapons with stolen technology, but also with foreign consultants, in this case probably from the World Bank.
One means of gaining an asymmetrical advantage against the United States is by having computer hackers prepare the environment for war by stealing military, industrial, and economic secrets. These hackers belong to over a dozen different bureaucracies within the Chinese government, such as Unit 61398. Hundreds of successful cyber attacks will help the Chinese acquire total information dominance over the battle space at, or just prior to, the commencement of hostilities. One intelligence analyst described the damage that could be done to America in the event of war by Chinese cyber-warfare as being like “removing the spark plugs from an engine” just as Uncle Sam gets behind the wheel and turns the key.
Where China intends to fight It would be easy to interpret this analysis as meaning that China intends to attack and invade America, but that is not the case. There is no known evidence from intelligence assessments, defectors, interviews, or China’s military and technology build-up itself to suggest that China wants to land troops on American shores. In fact, such a reckless action seems quite contrary to Chinese strategy. We then have to ask what China is preparing the battle space for? The answer: Taiwan, the Senkaku islands, and other military aggressions we cannot yet foresee.
Read more: http://sofrep.com/41635/chinese-hackers-prepare-battlespace-war-america/#ixzz3cb8tnmmT
Just wait until they hack into NSA.
Probably already have if the rumors of yesteryear are true about the Chinese putting back door chips into Cisco network gear (and some at the high grade telco rated gear).
fair warning china ... Wake this ‘sleeping Giant’ at your own risk ....
Need a bed time story of nightmares?
I agree with that. In my years I have come to realize that the Chinese by and large are not innovators, they are thief’s and even with what they steal it is second rate by the time they are done with “it”. The White Hats in this country could turn China’s great firewall into swiss cheese not to mention help this country (very long term) if they wasted the supply chains so America was no longer regularly receiving Chinese made crap. Imagine what the black hats in it for gain coulddo during the fog of digital war..
So for the moment, whatever power to act the Current Regime still retains, is entirely reactive in nature (when they choose to react at all). What is needed, is the will to take a PROACTIVE role in turning these kinds of attack back on the Chinese.
And on ISIS, for that matter.
But don’t hold your breath.
My appreciation Ghost ... May Paul Revere be riding with us, FRiend
I know I am not..To be honest, I thought for certain at this point Russia would be full tilt into Ukraine, China would have already made its play for Taiwan and Israel would have been under relentless attack (all things discussed on this forum when obie came into office). I guess they still have some time yet with the willing participant in the white hut.
The best many of us can do at this point is prep. Wouldn’t take much for some spec op’s teams to take out major transformers in this country or doing soft attacks against scada’s which could take us out of the game for a while (not completely, but not having our full force).
I don’t have a ping list for this type of subject..Anyone else by chance?
thanks
few more pedals of the flower are yet to fade and God has a few more decisions to make ... or may that be what is taking place
Soldiers, lots and lots and lots of soldiers.
from http://www.volokh.com/posts/1193813842.shtml
... one of my favorite novels, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, and of one of my favorite passages from that novel, a passage written in Admiral Yamamoto’s voice and set just before his death. ...
“The Yanks are laughably rude and uncultured, of course; this hardly constitutes a sharp observation. Yamamoto, by contrast, attained some genuine insight as a side-effect of being robbed blind by Yanks at the poker table, realizing that the big freckled louts could be dreadfully cunning. Crude and stupid would be okay — perfectly understandable, in fact.
But crude and clever is intolerable; this is what makes those red headed ape men extra double super loathsome.
...He realizes something: The Americans must have done the impossible: broken all of their codes. That explains Midway, it explains the Bismarck Sea, Hollandia, everything. It especially explains why Yamamoto — who ought to be sipping green tea and practicing calligraphy in a misty garden — is, in point of fact, on fire and hurtling through the jungle at a hundred miles per hour in a chair, closely pursued by tons of flaming junk. He must get word out! The codes must all be changed! This is what he is thinking when he flies head-on into a hundred-foot-tall Octomelis sumatrana.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto
Amen ... Broken are the codes, FRiend ... Thank You!
“According to SOFREP sources, it isn’t just benign human-resources-type information that was stolen, but also lists of active CIA personnel and information pertaining to front companies used as commercial cover by the same agency.”
I knew it.
L
Was easy to guess ... wasn't it?
narrow way and getting lost a time or two from Captain to Major ... Northern Star ... this much I know is true ...
we have the grander plan ... God Bless You!
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