International Law

The Yellow (Cyber) Horde is Coming to Get You: a US Military Perspective

By Stan

All right, we’ve all read countless stories over the past few months about the shadowy world of Chinese hackers, their government support, and their quest for global domination. (Well, I didn’t say that we necessarily believed any of these stories.)

Most of what I’ve read on the subject can be categorized as one of the following:

1. Geek story — articles in any periodical that includes “PC” in the name qualify here. The substance of most of these writings usually includes the technical capabilities of some of these hacksters, as well as a list of some of the more high profile targets they have taken down, the latter being quite titillating to your average geek reader.

2. Wingnut hit job — these pieces can generally be found in newspaper op-ed columns (e.g. the Washington Times), think tank reports, and right-wing blogs. The tone here is usually paranoid, nationalistic, and thin on facts.

3. Apologists — these are more likely to be found online than anywhere else and include missives written by bloggers and technical experts whose main message seems to be: “Of course China has hackers, who doesn’t?” I suppose the stuff that I have written on this subject would be best classified in this third category.

Today’s contribution, courtesy of Wired Magazine, is a comment made by a US general (the head of US strategic command, what ever that is — I have said countless times that I am not a military expert.)

Speaking to reporters at a press breakfast last week, Gen. Kevin  Chilton, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, said the president retained the option to retaliate with military force in the event of a serious cyber attack against U.S. networks.

I don’t know about you, but none of the hackers I know congregate in a single, well marked, and identifiable facility where they punch in at nine o’clock in the morning and leave every day at five.

Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems that a threat like cyber warfare is something the military types like to call “unconventional.” You would also think that the proper military response to such a threat would also be unconventional.

I guess not. I wonder who is the poor schmuck whose job it is to target those smart bombs on China’s hacker HQ. Now that’s a tough job.

© Stan for China Hearsay, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us

Full post as published by China Hearsay on May 14, 2009 (boomark / email).