China's cyber-warfare capabilities are 'fairly rudimentary'

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-11/02/china-cyberwar

By Duncan Geere
Wired.co.uk
02 November 11

Amidst growing concern over electronic warfare, an Australian academic 
has dismissed China's cyber-warfare capabilities as "fairly 
rudimentary".

Desmond Ball, a professor in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in 
Australia's National University argues that the country's offensive 
capabilities are actually pretty limited, and that its internal security 
has a bunch of vulnerabilities.

Ball says that China has carried out a selection of high-profile hacks 
recently, as well as website defacements and DDoS attacks, but that 
those attacks have demonstrated little in the way of sophistication. 
"The viruses and trojan horses they have used have been fairly easy to 
detect and remove before any damage has been done or data stolen. There 
is no evidence that China's cyber-warriors can penetrate highly secure 
networks or covertly steal or falsify critical data," says the paper 
(PDF).

"They would be unable to systematically cripple selected command and 
control, air defence and intelligence networks and databases of advanced 
adversaries, or to conduct deception operations by secretly manipulating 
the data in these networks."

[...]


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