By Marcel A. Green
A recent attack on GitHub highlights China’s growing expertise – and aggression – in cyberspace.
With recent news suggesting that the recent massive denial-of-service attacks against online hosting and code-sharing site GitHub was either sponsored or encouraged by Chinese authorities, the spotlight has once again been turned on China’s intentions in cyberspace and whether or not its activities pose a threat to worldwide, and especially U.S. cybersecurity.
China is one of the most active nations in cyberspace. Moreover, China has made no secret that President Xi Jinping’s “new model of great power relations” policy means that it will not be afraid to challenge the U.S. and the rest of the world in areas it considers a core interest, such as cyberspace.
Much like the U.S., China has devoted substantial money, manpower and resources to developing its cyber capabilities. Chinese cyber capabilities include a mix of dedicated personnel, advanced equipment, and cyberattack methodologies. According to the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, since as early as 2006, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been using an elite cyberwarfare unit based in Shanghai to launch hundreds of cyberattacks targeting American interest. The unit, officially known as Unit 61398, operates under the PLA’s Second Bureau of the General Staff Department’s (GSD) Third Department, which is focused on cyber surveillance and monitoring of foreign electronic communications. Unit 61398 has a staff of “hundreds if not thousands” of people, trained in advanced network security, digital signal processing, and covert communications who have access extensive “infrastructure of computer systems around the world.” Recently the Taipei Times reported that Taiwan’s National security Bureau (NSB) has identified another unit of the GSD’s Third Department that is involved in cyber-activities. This unit has been revealed to be Third Department’s Sixth Bureau based out of Wuhan University in Hubei Province. According to the NSB, the Sixth Bureau is “engaged in technical aspects of surveillance and intelligence gathering on the Taiwanese agencies, intercepting telecommunications signals, hacking computers and mobile phone service networks and satellite imagery reconnaissance.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat