The
Cable got a little love in Congress yesterday from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, as he pressed
Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis
Blair on the recent China-Google spat and the broader issue of Chinese government
sponsorship of cyberattacks and online espionage.
Here's Whitehouse,
referencing
our recent story on the subject:
And I want
to read from you, a couple of statements from a recent article in Foreign
Policy magazine by Josh Rogin. He reported that senior U.S. military officials
believe, quote, "the Chinese government is supporting hackers that attack
anything and everything in the national security infrastructure on a constant
basis."
He continues,
"the Defense Department has said that the Chinese government, in addition
to employing thousands of its own hackers, manages massive teams of experts
from academia and industry in cyber militias that act in Chinese national
interest with unclear amounts of support and direction from Chinese Peoples
Liberation Army."
It seems
that the analogy in cyber warfare goes back to the ancient days of naval combat
when nations not only sent out ships under their own flag to engage in warfare
but also offered to private ship owners, to pirates, indeed, letters of mark to
go out and act in that nation's interest. What do you believe are the most
important structural deficits that we have and need to fix in dealing with
state sponsored cyber attacks on our country that either come through false
legs or are hidden behind work stations that are located all around the world
in order to be able to deter these attacks.
And if it
makes a difference, could you distinguish between what Mr. Rogin referred to as
hackers that attack anything and everything in the national security
infrastructure on a constant basis and the brain drain that we face from
wholesale industrial espionage -- stealing our manufacturing and technological
secrets so that competitors abroad can take advantage of them without paying
for the intellectual property they have stolen.
Blair didn't respond directly, acknowledging only
that government-sponsored hacking has advantages over simple criminal hacking
because it can be linked up with human intelligence. He also appeared to
downplay the significance of official Chinese involvement, saying, "The nature of this threat is pretty
much the same no matter who is doing it. It's just the resources they have to
put against it."
Whitehouse
was quick with a rebuttal. "Those resources can matter a lot when it ends up to
thousands or even tens of thousands of attacks daily and weekly," he said.
In his prepared remarks,
Blair spoke extensively about cyberwarfare but didn't reference China in that
section. In the section on China, he didn't reference cyberespionage. But Blair
did say, "I am here today to stress that, acting independently, neither the U.S.
government nor the private sector can fully control or protect the country's
information infrastructure."
Meanwhile, the Senate is making clear its view that
China's suppression of Internet freedom and their cyberespionage activities, as
evidenced by the Google attacks, are a major national security concern.
The Senate passed on Monday night a
resolution spearheaded by Delaware Sen. Ted
Kaufman that "condemns the far-reaching cyber attacks allegedly launched
from China against Google, at least 34 other companies, and numerous
individuals discovered in December 2009" and "calls on the Government of China
to conduct a thorough review of these cyber intrusions, and to make the
investigation and its results transparent."
“Last night [Monday], the Senate spoke in one voice, calling on the Chinese government to investigate and explain the recent cyberattacks and expressing serious concern about ongoing attempts by China and other countries to restrict press and Internet freedom,” said Kaufman. "Governments who use technology to silence their citizens or restrict the free flow of information should consider themselves on notice.”
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