China's Increasingly Muscular Cyberwarfare Capability
03/05/24 • 38 min
In today's episode of State of (Cyber)War, Hugo Tarrida and John Salomon talk about China's approach to cyberwar. What is the history behind Chinese cyber capabilities? What are Chinese geopolitical, economic, and social objectives that drive their international cyber activities? What are some of the biases that we should be aware of when evaluating the trajectory of China and its cyberwar abilities?
Also don't forget to check out our previous video about Chinese disinformation activities here: https://youtu.be/xBAJ2rBKrMc
Notes and links:
Hugo Tarrida on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugo-tarrida-32915a204/ John Salomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/
Wikipedia article worth reading about Chinese cyber warfare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare_by_China
05:42 Granted, Stuxnet was a joint US-Israeli venture - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet 07:06 https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-says-its-working-major-new-agreement-with-iran-2023-12-12/ 14:05 Titan Rain - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Rain Related: Operation Aurora (2009) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora 15:20 https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1098368201/a-spying-scandal-and-the-fate-of-western-sahara 17:07 The case of Wen Ho Lee, one of several perpetrators of military espionage: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/RL30143.pdf 20:30 https://nattothoughts.substack.com - Nellie Ohr and her team do excellent analysis work 20:50 "An Analysis of China's Great Cannon" - https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/foci15/foci15-paper-marczak.pdf Shoutout to fellow UC Berkeley CSUA member Nick Weaver for co-authoring this paper) 27:48 E.g. "The 'Century of Humiliation' and China's National Narratives" - https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/3.10.11Kaufman.pdf 29:42 Belt and Road Initiative - https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative 32:38 Referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_information_operations_and_information_warfare ("Definitions" section) 32:45 The Three Warfares: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADB372300.pdf 34:04 The Nine-Dash Line: https://chinaus-icas.org/research/map-spotlight-nine-dash-line/ 34:52 In fact, ruled to be explicitly illegal by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016: https://pca-cpa.org/en/news/pca-press-release-the-south-china-sea-arbitration-the-republic-of-the-philippines-v-the-peoples-republic-of-china/ 36:19 US FBI director Christopher Wray recently warned about this: https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228153857/wray-chinese-hackers-national-security
The State of (Cyber)War is a project by members of the Cybersecurity Advisors Network (CyAN), with an interest in information security topics relevant to geopolitics, military cyberdefence, diplomacy, and other international topics. We discuss various aspects of both current and past issues from the point of view of interested amateurs with varying degrees of experience in the field, in a not-always-entirely-serious format.
Visit the Cybersecurity Advisors Network at https://cybersecurityadvisors.network
Intro music courtesy of AlexiAction via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400/
Outro music courtesy of Studio Kolomna via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/studiokolomna-2073170/
Original YouTube video at https://youtu.be/HLVPDojARh0
In today's episode of State of (Cyber)War, Hugo Tarrida and John Salomon talk about China's approach to cyberwar. What is the history behind Chinese cyber capabilities? What are Chinese geopolitical, economic, and social objectives that drive their international cyber activities? What are some of the biases that we should be aware of when evaluating the trajectory of China and its cyberwar abilities?
Also don't forget to check out our previous video about Chinese disinformation activities here: https://youtu.be/xBAJ2rBKrMc
Notes and links:
Hugo Tarrida on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugo-tarrida-32915a204/ John Salomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/
Wikipedia article worth reading about Chinese cyber warfare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare_by_China
05:42 Granted, Stuxnet was a joint US-Israeli venture - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet 07:06 https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-says-its-working-major-new-agreement-with-iran-2023-12-12/ 14:05 Titan Rain - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Rain Related: Operation Aurora (2009) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora 15:20 https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1098368201/a-spying-scandal-and-the-fate-of-western-sahara 17:07 The case of Wen Ho Lee, one of several perpetrators of military espionage: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/RL30143.pdf 20:30 https://nattothoughts.substack.com - Nellie Ohr and her team do excellent analysis work 20:50 "An Analysis of China's Great Cannon" - https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/foci15/foci15-paper-marczak.pdf Shoutout to fellow UC Berkeley CSUA member Nick Weaver for co-authoring this paper) 27:48 E.g. "The 'Century of Humiliation' and China's National Narratives" - https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/3.10.11Kaufman.pdf 29:42 Belt and Road Initiative - https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative 32:38 Referenced here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_information_operations_and_information_warfare ("Definitions" section) 32:45 The Three Warfares: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADB372300.pdf 34:04 The Nine-Dash Line: https://chinaus-icas.org/research/map-spotlight-nine-dash-line/ 34:52 In fact, ruled to be explicitly illegal by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016: https://pca-cpa.org/en/news/pca-press-release-the-south-china-sea-arbitration-the-republic-of-the-philippines-v-the-peoples-republic-of-china/ 36:19 US FBI director Christopher Wray recently warned about this: https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228153857/wray-chinese-hackers-national-security
The State of (Cyber)War is a project by members of the Cybersecurity Advisors Network (CyAN), with an interest in information security topics relevant to geopolitics, military cyberdefence, diplomacy, and other international topics. We discuss various aspects of both current and past issues from the point of view of interested amateurs with varying degrees of experience in the field, in a not-always-entirely-serious format.
Visit the Cybersecurity Advisors Network at https://cybersecurityadvisors.network
Intro music courtesy of AlexiAction via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400/
Outro music courtesy of Studio Kolomna via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/studiokolomna-2073170/
Original YouTube video at https://youtu.be/HLVPDojARh0
Previous Episode
50 Cent Army? What a Bargain! China and its Disinformation Campaigns
Join James Briscoe and John Salomon in the latest episode of the State of (Cyber)War podcast as they discuss the People's Republic of China and some of its disinformation capabilities.
This informal conversation includes discussion about Chinese foreign election interference, domestic social media manipulation, Taiwan, China's foreign political and economic interests and more.
John Salomon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/ James Briscoe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbriscoe/
02:10 Xi Jinping's new year's address, via CCTV: https://youtu.be/TEd3CtcL1pU?si=MAiKGP-SPjm8cjCe 02:50 Xi Zhongxun, Chinese revolutionary leader: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Zhongxun 04:00 Taiwanese elections 2024: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Taiwanese_general_election 04:08 Kuomintang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang 04:27 Democratic Progressive Party: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party 05:45 1992 Consensus: https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/the-1992-consensus-why-it-worked-and-why-it-fell-apart/ 07:15 These are the Valemax ore carriers: https://vale.com/w/fleet-of-ships-serving-vale-receives-first-ore-carrier-in-the-world-equipped-with-rotor-sails 09:12 50 Cent Party: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party 09:52 Nine-dotted line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line 10:04 Belt and Road Initiative: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative 13:00 https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSIN277923/ 13:43 NY Times article on the topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/us/politics/china-disinformation-ai.html 14:15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident 14:42 A lot of this is obviously speculation. https://www.wired.com/story/east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment-tiktok/ 16:42 Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank: https://www.aiib.org/en/index.html 19:35 An article about PRC influence on the Taiwanese elections: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/taiwan-presidential-election-china-influence 20:32 https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1215898523/meta-warns-china-online-social-media-influence-operations-facebook-elections 21:05 A US State Department briefing on this topic: https://www.state.gov/briefings-foreign-press-centers/how-the-prc-amplifies-russian-disinformation 24:15 United Front Work Department: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Front_Work_Department 26:25 Some points about interference in US elections: https://gdil.org/russian-and-chinese-influence-actors-and-operations-against-the-american-electorate/ 29:34 Hundred Years of Humiliation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation 30:30 The Avoidable War, by Kevin Rudd: https://www.avoidablewar.com/ 32:23 Natto Thoughts: https://nattothoughts.substack.com/ 32:26 The disinformation handbook (part I): https://nattothoughts.substack.com/p/disinformation-handbook-a-concise
A few links on the topic worth reading:
Chinese information operations against Taiwan:
https://therecord.media/taiwan-elections-china-interference https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/taiwan-presidential-election-china-influence https://thediplomat.com/2024/01/beijing-tries-to-capitalize-on-taiwans-controversial-rocket-alert/ https://thediplomat.com/2024/01/rip-off-the-blindfold-let-taiwanese-civil-society-learn-from-ukraine/ https://fpri.org/article/2023/12/whats-at-stake-in-upcoming-taiwan-election/
General Chinese disinfo operations:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2023/10/dismantling-the-disinformation-business-of-chinese.html https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/joint-capabilities/13356-report-massive-chinese-disinformation-campaign-uncovered-on-youtube
https://medium.com/doublethinklab/propaganda-analysis-how-different-actors-in-chinas-information-ecosystem-portray-the-ukraine-war-ac82713c2f68 https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1215898523/meta-warns-china-online-social-media-influence-operations-facebook-elections
The State of (Cyber)War is a project by members of the Cybersecurity Advisors Network (CyAN), with an interest in information security topics relevant to geopolitics, military cyberdefence, diplomacy, and other international topics. We discuss various aspects of both current and past issues from the point of view of interested amateurs with varying degrees of experience in the field, in a not-always-entirely-serious format.
Visit the Cybersecurity Advisors Network at https://cybersecurityadvisors.network
Intro music courtesy of AlexiAction via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400/ Outro music courtesy of Studio Kolomna via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/studiokolomna-2073170/
Original YouTube video at https://youtu.be/xBAJ2rBKrMc
Next Episode
Cyber Conflict in the Middle East - Round One
In today's episode of State of (Cyber)War, Hugo Tarrida and John Salomon talk about the background and current state of cyber conflict in the Middle East.
We give an overview of some of the major state actors involved, and zero in on the structures, groups, and motivations of the two main regional adversaries - Iran and Israel.
Notes and links:
Due to the volume of supporting links and text, we've listed them on the CyAN blog, available here: https://cybersecurityadvisors.network/2024/04/10/state-of-cyberwar-episode-5-notes/
Original video episode avaialable at https://youtu.be/X3wkTszRlck
Hugo Tarrida on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugo-tarrida-32915a204/
John Salomon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/
Check out the rest of CyAN's media channels on https://cybersecurityadvisors.network/media - and visit us at https://cybersecurityadvisors.network
Intro music courtesy of AlexiAction via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400
Outro music courtesy of Studio Kolomna via Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/studiokolomna-2073170
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