America prepares for 'cyber war' with China

America prepares for 'cyber war' with China

By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 2:42am BST 15/06/2007

China is striving to overtake the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, according to a senior American general, in what is emerging as a new theatre of conflict between nation states and a growing priority for the Pentagon.

The Chinese foreign ministry rejected the Pentagon report as 'brutal interference'.

Lt Gen Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, said that all of America's foes, including Iran, were looking at ways of hacking into US networks to glean trade and defence secrets.

But efforts by China set it apart. "They're the only nation that has been quite that blatant about saying 'we're looking to do that'," said Gen Elder in Washington.

Gen Elder is to head a new cyber command centre being set up at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, already home to about 25,000 military personnel involved in everything from electronic warfare to network defence.

The command's focus is to control the "cyber domain", which the Pentagon now sees as critical to everything from communications to surveillance to infrastructure security, and just as important as "kinetic war".

His remarks follow last month's annual report by the Pentagon on China's military power which said China regarded computer network operations as critical to achieving "electromagnetic dominance" early in a conflict.

China's People's Liberation Army had established units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, the Pentagon said.

China also was investing in electronic countermeasures and defences against electronic attack, including infrared decoys and false-target generators.

The US military now defines cyberspace as much broader than merely defending or attacking computer networks.

Michael Wynne, the air force secretary, recently described the dangers as including remotely detonated roadside bombs in Iraq as well as interference with global positioning satellites and financial transactions over the internet.

He said America's nerve centre "resides in cyberspace. Our military command and control, and precision strike capability all rely on ensured access to the electronic spectrum."

Caitlin Harrington, an aviation specialist at Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "The US military is taking this very seriously. It is similar to the once-emerging question of dominance of outer space."

Gen Elder said a cyber war would probably involve precision targeting of enemy military networks, command centres or air defence systems.

The clearest example so far of cyber conflict came earlier this year when Estonia claimed that state-sponsored Russian hackers had attacked official websites in retaliation for the removal of a Soviet-era monument in its capital, Tallinn.

Government email and private online banking had to be shut down temporarily, while telecommunications companies and news organisations were also affected.

Nato allies and European specialists found that some of the attacks originated from IP (internet protocol) addresses that appeared to belong to the administration of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The Chinese foreign ministry rejected the Pentagon's report as "brutal interference" in internal affairs and insisted that Beijing's military preparations were purely defensive.