|
Beijing’s intrusions into government
computers across the planet — most recently in India — are illegal and outrageous
While world publicity has mainly focused on the intrusion of
the Chinese into the email system of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates last
year, the fact is that Chinese hackers have been crawling all over the computer
systems of a growing number of countries. The latest example is their recent foray
into the web servers of India’s
Ministry of External Affairs.
The Indian incursion is being treated as the Internet
equivalent of a terrorist attack on a national institution, threatening the
security of India’s
diplomatic and military communications. Although Chinese embassy officials in Delhi reacted angrily to news
of the event as an “irresponsible fabrication,” the incident fits an emerging
pattern of planned Chinese penetration of government websites and subsequent denial
of responsibility.
In May 2007, for instance, it came to light that the Chinese
had hacked into the computers of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and
three of her ministries. In June came the announcement by US officials that
they had hacked into Gates’ email system. In September the British government
disclosed that a hacking unit traceable to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army
had hit the networks of the Foreign Office and other key departments in London.
Although Beijing
has vehemently objected to each of the allegations as malicious propaganda, the
scale and nature of data stolen in these operations leaves little doubt about
Chinese state involvement. The argument that the hackers, whose IP addresses go
back to mainland China, are loose cannons working on their own simply to
demonstrate their destructive technical skills does not square with the reality
that Beijing has never prosecuted any of this burgeoning tribe.
It is ironic that in a so-called communist country where
unionizing is banned for the working class, there exist hackers’ “unions” and “Red
alliances” that pool Chinese software programmers willing to work for so-called
patriotic causes. From 1998 to 2002, “Red hackers” broke into thousands of
websites and paralyzed computer systems in the US,
Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.
The Honker Union, based in mainland China, attained legendary status as a national
asset during the 2001 spy plane standoff with the US. Its members went on a hacking spree
and defaced the home pages of several American government websites and were
answered through a tit-for-tat by American hacking professionals.
Following that high-profile cyber battle, the Honker Union
mobilized anti-Japanese protests and petitions online in 2003. In 2005, hacking
squads attacked dozens of public and private websites in Japan in what
the Washington Post described as “the heaviest assault ever perpetrated on the
nation's computer systems from overseas.” Domestic public opinion about the
Honkers was overwhelmingly positive and even led to the coronation of celebrity
hackers who gave interviews to media outlets and flaunted their exploits.
Instead of arresting the cyber criminals who are in
contravention of the norms of international diplomacy, both Chinese society and
state have hailed them as national heroes. Chinese Public Relations scholar Xu
Wu has written that hacking for the sake of the motherland is a “natural
extension from China’s
century-long nationalist movement.” State-run research institutes and media
houses glorify them as implementers of the Maoist doctrine of “harming if you do
harm to me.” In such a permissive environment hacking has become a growth
industry.
The free rein afforded to hackers contrasts sharply with the
tight control the state attempts to exercise on Internet search engines and
politically objectionable websites. Authoritarian China
fears technologies that allow its citizens access to subversive information on
democracy, human rights, religious freedoms and self-determination struggles,
such as Tibet
and Xinjiang. The agreement in 2004 between the Chinese government and Google
to omit contentious news stories from search results in China illustrates the determination with which Beijing polices cyberspace.
In March, as the Tibetan tumult cascaded, China swiftly blocked Google News
and YouTube for a week in an attempt at damage control. Internet censorship by
the Chinese government on the issues of Tibet or the Falun Gong spiritual
movement is the obverse of the long rope given to hackers to incite
anti-Japanese riots or to steal state secrets from targeted countries. This
contradictory situation suggests that New Economy-enabling technology is a
double-edged sword for China’s
regime.
If the Internet can be China’s best friend as well as its
worst enemy, crafty state management of it becomes an imperative. Beijing’s policy is to
continue developing its cyberwar abilities as part of its military modernization
drive while acting as a vigilant gatekeeper against websites that can fuel
dissent and unrest among its people.
Legal experts say that effectively outlawing cyber crime is
difficult due to the nature of the Internet. Even if there were an
international convention regulating cyberspace, norm-offending states like China
cannot be expected to adhere to rules of the book.
The only option for victim states like India is to publicize each incident
of Chinese hacking into its domains and to raise international attention of this
patently aggressive behavior.
The more China’s
hacking strategy is exposed before the world, the greater will be the urgency
to improve internet network security. India’s global leadership in
software programming gives it a distinct advantage in developing foolproof
defenses against infiltration by Chinese hackers. As to the counteroffensive
option, Indian hackers are known to have waged mini-cyber wars against
Pakistani websites in the past. They will need to organise better against the
much more formidable challenge posed by the Chinese.
Sreeram Chaulia is a
researcher on international affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship in Syracuse,
New York.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
Coal surge is unabated, raising environmental concerns
