Military warns of 'increasingly active' cyber-threat from China

Computerworld - On the same day that Google Inc. and the GoDaddy Group Inc. complained about China to a congressional committee, U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Willard appeared before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee with an even stronger warning about cyber-threats posed by China.

Willard's comments about China received little press attention but were stronger than anything said by either company.

"U.S. military and government networks and computer systems continue to be the target of intrusions that appear to have originated from within the PRC (People's Republic of China)," said Willard.

He said that most of the intrusions are focused on acquiring data "but the skills being demonstrated would also apply to network attacks."

Willard testified on the military's operations in its Pacific command, which he said "faces increasingly active and sophisticated threats to our information and computer infrastructure."

"These threats challenge our ability to operate freely in the cyber commons, which in turn challenges our ability to conduct operations during peacetime and in times of crisis," Willard said in prepared remarks (PDF document). He said the military was responding in near real-time to threats.

It's not just the military saying that the cyber-threats coming from China are on the rise. Appearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Thursday, Christine Jones, an executive vice president and general counsel at domain registration giant GoDaddy, said that "in the first three months of this year, we have repelled dozens of extremely serious DDoS attacks that appear to have originated in China."

Although GoDaddy and Google cited China as a source of cyber-attacks, they didn't blame the government. But these firms are taking action to limit their dealings with China because of other government policies concerning privacy and censorship.

But will the experiences of GoDaddy, Google and for that matter, the U.S. military, prompt other companies to act similarly and take steps to limit their business in China?

Robert Vambery, a professor of international business at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York, said this kind of behavior has been going on for a while and it's naive not to expect it. While he sees the possibility of action by Google and other firms having some short- to intermediate-term impacts on other businesses in their dealings with China, they won't be major, he said.

"Unless there is some serious military encounter between China and the United States, then this is not likely to change significantly in the near future," Vambery said.