PeteFree.comChinese Computer Hacking Made Off with Billions in Defense Technology — and Probably Closed the Military Gap (Compared to the US) in Some Critical Areas — All because American Political Culture Is Demonstrably too Inept to Recognize that National Cyber Security Cannot Depend on Marketplace Laissez Faire
© 2013 Peter Free
29 May 2013
Ellen Nakashima, at the Washington Post broke the story, but Jason Mick at Daily Tech summarized its implications best
Ellen Nakashima, Confidential report lists U.S. weapons system designs compromised by Chinese cyberspies, Washington Post (27 May 2013)
Jason Mick, Chinese Hackers Score F-35, Black Hawk Chopper, and PATRIOT Missile Data, Daily Tech (28 May 2013)
China erased a good deal of the military gap by piggybacking on American money and effort
As Jason Mick summarized:
In its confidential report for the Pentagon and industry officials -- first revealed by The Washington Post -- the DSB [Defense Science Board] claims that blueprints and data pertaining to two dozen weapons systems -- including U.S. missile defenses and combat aircraft and ships -- were accessed by Chinese hackers. The report, by the mixed civilian/government board, which advises government and corporate policy makers, does not suggest necessarily the Chinese have stolen complete designs.
Among the other weapons systems accessed by Chinese hackers include:
The PATRIOT missile system (PAC-3)
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Army's ballistic missile interceptor program
Aegis, the Navy's ballistic-missile interceptor technology
Compromised contractors include:
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)
Raytheon Comp. (RTN)
Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC)
Mark Stokes, executive director of the Project 2049 Institute -- an Asian-centric D.C. think-tank, comments, "[The intrusions are] staggering. These are all very critical weapons systems, critical to our national security. When I hear this in totality, it’s breathtaking."
© 2013 Jason Mick, Chinese Hackers Score F-35, Black Hawk Chopper, and PATRIOT Missile Data, Daily Tech (28 May 2013)
Mr. Mick adds that President Obama’s “tough talk” with the Chinese about the evils of cyber stealing apparently failed.
China is proving to be a worthy adversary
My historical sense has long thought that the evaporation of the Soviet Union encouraged an American slide into conceited complacence.
There is nothing like the absence of a gifted adversary to let one wallow in excessive self-regard and lolling witlessly on the Beach of Forgetfulness.
The People’s Republic of China is going to change that.
Not only is the People’s Republic of China:
(a) using its cultural intelligence to rework capitalism into an authoritarian mix that is putting America’s laissez faire brand on the ropes,
(b) that nation’s sense of managed direction is undercutting American technology leadership by stealing intellectual property wherever it can.
“Here, take my lead”
In one fell swoop, China’s hackers have gotten their hands on important bits of the military technology that it took years of effort and billions of dollars to create.
That ploy essentially transported both the billions of dollars and the secrets gained therefrom into China’s metaphorical treasure chest, while weakening our own to the same degree.
How’s that for skillful execution of the Art of War?
The grating aspect of the theft is this — it was easily foreseeable
Only a fool would leave his gold reserve open to passing neighbors’ view.
But instead of insisting that American government and national security-oriented business lock their cyber vaults — the Obama Administration has been off persecuting alleged hackers like Aaron Swartz for trivial transgressions, which were intended to benefit, rather than harm, the public.
The moral? — When we are both culturally conceited and asleep, we tend to elect captains who cannot command our ship out of port, much less on hostile seas
When the American public lacks the sense that it needs to competently guard its trenches, it is easily diverted into thinking that elections are beauty pageants.
It “ain’t” all Barack Obama’s fault. He is just an attractive, responsibility-avoiding narcissist like the majority of America’s national politicians.
The American public needs to start insisting on substance-oriented leadership that is worthy of engaging Reality’s foreseeable storms.
American Complacence Day can terminate without impinging on our freedoms.
Contractual safeguards, which insist that government and defense contractors maintain cyber security — combined with an active cyber defense testing system — should be enough to turn the tide.
Just keep in mind that the PRC has a pool of 1.4 billion minds to draw on. We have less than a quarter that many.
Our guys “gonna hafta” be good. Much of the battle is simply recognizing the disparity and acting on it.