A Smoking Cursor? New Window Opens on China’s Potential Cyberwarfare Development CCTV 7 program raises new questions about Beijing’s support for hacking

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.chinasignpost.com/2011/08/a-smoking-cursor-new-window-opens-on-china%E2%80%99s-potential-cyberwarfare-development-cctv-7-program-raises-new-questions-about-beijing%E2%80%99s-support-for-hacking/

By Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins
China SignPost
24 August 2011

The positions expressed here are the authors' personal views. They do 
not represent the U.S. Naval War College, Navy, Department of Defense, 
or Government, and do not necessarily reflect the policies or estimates 
of these or any other organizations.

Amid growing U.S. concerns of ongoing Chinese cyberattacks, attribution 
remains the most complex issue. At the open source level at least, it 
has been hard to find a "smoking cursor." That is, until the broadcast 
of a recent cyberwarfare program on the military channel of China’s 
state television network. It appeared to show dated computer screenshots 
of a Chinese military institute conducting a rudimentary type of 
cyberattack against a United States-based dissident entity. However 
modest, ambiguous -- and, from China's perspective, defensive -- this is 
possibly the first direct piece of visual evidence from an official 
Chinese government source to undermine Beijing's official claims never 
to engage in overseas hacking of any kind for government purposes. 
Clearly, Washington and Beijing have much to discuss candidly here if 
they are to avoid dangerous strategic tension.


What Happened?

China Central Television 7 (CCTV-7) is China's official channel for 
military and agricultural issues. As part of its wide-ranging coverage, 
every Saturday at 1440-1500 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), CCTV-7 runs a 
20-minute program on military S&T developments in China and abroad 
called "Military Science and Technology." It's always worth watching, 
given the range of timely topics covered and the detailed analyses 
offered by Chinese specialists. The 16 July 2011 edition was 
particularly so.

Entitled "The Internet Storm is Coming" (网络风暴来了), as pictured 
above in a CCTV-7 website screenshot, it begins with a broad discussion 
of cyberattacks. It highlights a statement by then-U.S. Secretary of 
Defense Robert M. Gates at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on 4 
June 2011. This important international conference was also attended by 
Gates' Chinese counterpart General Liang Guanglie. Emphasizing that the 
U.S. was extremely concerned about the cyberattacks that it was 
continually suffering from, Gates suggested that some attacks could rise 
to the level of an act of war and prompt the U.S. to respond with 
force.[1]

PRC Military expert Du Wenlong (pictured above) then highlights 
President Obama's May 2009 remarks in which he emphasized the importance 
of securing the nation’s digital infrastructure and declared it a 
strategic national asset. Du explains that Washington would regard some 
types of cyberattacks as acts of war because modern military operations 
rely heavily on digital networks and cyberspace: "networks have become 
the basis for military action and for winning a war."[2] Du appears to 
be well acquainted with his subject matter, and provides cogent 
explanations of complex cyber issues. The program proceeds to explain 
how cyberwarfare may be waged, in both the defensive and offensive 
dimensions.

[...]

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