China Admits To Cyber Army

Biggins

China Admits To Cyber Army.

Short version: China has for once admitted to having a cyber task force wich is dedicated to defending Chinas systems and attacking world systems.

Long version (From the Times today)

China today admitted for the first time the existence of a super-elite unit of cyberwarriors – a team supposedly trained to protect the People’s Liberation Army from outside assault on its networks.
The revelation of the 30-strong crack unit, known as the “Blue Army”, will confirm the very worst fears of governments across the globe who already suspect their systems and secrets may come under regular and co-ordinated Chinese cyberattack.

In a stark reminder of China’s potential cyberwarfare capabilities, a former PLA general told The Times that the unit had been drawn from an exceptionally deep talent pool. “It is just like ping-pong. We have more people playing it, so we are very good at it,” he said.
The Blue Army, which comprises just a few of the very best talents China has to offer, are understood to have been drawn from various channels, including existing PLA soldiers, officers, college students and assorted “members of society”.

Confirmation of the existence of the Blue Army came during a rare briefing by China’s Defence Ministry whose spokesman, Geng Yansheng, said that the unit’s purpose was to improve the security of the country’s existing military forces.

Organised under the Guangdong Military Command, the Blue Army is understood to have existed formally for about two years, but been discussed within the PLA for over a decade. A report in the official PLA newspaper said that “tens of millions” of renminbi had been spent on the country’s first ever command level training network.
Xu Guangyu, a senior researcher of the government-backed China Arms Control and

Disarmament Association described the existence of the Blue Army as a great step forward for the PLA and that China could simply not afford to allow “blank spaces” to open up in state and military security.
“The internet has no boundaries, so we can’t say which country or organisation will be our enemy and who will attack us. The Blue Army’s main target is self-defence. We won’t initiate an attack on anyone,” he said.

In a comment that many foreign governments will argue dramatically understates the true balance of cyberwar capabilities, Mr Xu added: “I don’t think our Blue Army’s skills are too backward compared to those of other countries.”

In a recent test of its powers, reported the PLA Daily, the Blue Army was thrust into a simulated cyberbattle against an attacking force four times its size and left to defend China’s military networks against a remorseless bombardment of virus attacks, massive barrages of junk mail and stealth missions into the inner sanctums of military planning to steal top secret information on troop deployment. The Blue Army, needless to say, triumphed.

Asked whether the unit had been set up specifically to mount cyberattacks on foreign countries, Mr Geng said that internet security had become an international issue with an impact on the military field of battle. China, he added, was also a victim and its abilities to protect itself from cyberattack were currently very weak.

Defence sources said that the ranks of tamed Chinese hackers may, despite claims to the contrary, have given Beijing a potentially devastating form of “first strike” capability in online warfare.
Even without the PLA’s acknowledgement of the existence of the internet Blue Army, sources throughout the internet security industry have long believed that China-based hackers are the single largest source of worldwide cyberattacks.

A report on cyberespionage last year, by the US anti-virus software maker Symantec, found that more than a quarter of all attempts to steal sensitive corporate data originated in China and that the eastern city of Shaoxing was the single largest generator of attacks. Western intelligence sources believe that many Chinese-originated attacks are carried out by hackers with links to either the PLA or the Chinese Government.

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3040182.ece
Screen grab for those that don't have a Times account: http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5017/20110526135031.jpg

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I suspect China is not on their own, lets be honest.
However these guys I also suspect, is behind now a number of well known attacks on systems around Europe and America to say the least.

I'm actually surprised they even admitted to its existence.

AnonoBoy

Terracotta Cyber Army ARISE!!!

Biggins

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Terracotta Cyber Army ARISE!!!

If they do, they might just BYTE your head off!

Sykk

All of the world super powers have a cyber division of their armies... So I don't see how the Chinese are any different? Except for the fact that they have some seriously talented programmers...?

prinz

Biggins wrote: »

I'm actually surprised they even admitted to its existence.

Afraid you'll be outed soon as the Blue Army's man on boards? We know what you have in that green bag of yours.

Kojak

So does this mean that they will soon hack into boards and start deleting any post/thread about, say, tibet, or anything else they don't like to hear?

Mr Benevolent

Biggins wrote: »

If they do, they might just BYTE your head off!

Come back Pighead, all is forgiven.

jester77

with just a few bits of code:

/o o\

Biggins

Confab wrote: »

Come back Pighead, all is forgiven.

Wanna play with my floppy? :pac:

Duggy747

AVG Free would stop them in their tracks. :pac:

RachaelVO

Sykk wrote: »

All of the world super powers have a cyber division of their armies... So I don't see how the Chinese are any different? Except for the fact that they have some seriously talented programmers...?

It never would have dawned on me that all countries would have a cyber army. Of course it makes total sense, I just never had to think about it before.

I would imagine (like yourself) that the chinese cyber army is probably better than most. So it boils down to this: we all owe the chinese money, we buy their electronics and soon their cyber armies will take over the interweb... I'm kinda glad I like their food cos they might just take over the world!

prinz

Kojak wrote: »

So does this mean that they will soon hack into boards and start deleting any post/thread about, say, _________ , or anything else they don't like to hear?

ROR don't be sirry.

JohnMarston

RachaelVO wrote: »

I would imagine (like yourself) that the chinese cyber army is probably better than most. So it boils down to this: we all owe the chinese money, we buy their electronics and soon their cyber armies will take over the interweb... I'm kinda glad I like their food cos they might just take over the world!

Of course!

Pauleta

I fully support China's cyber army, the CIA, Mossad and any other organisation that is more powerful than me that may be reading this.

Ghandee

They still do a dam good crispy chicken in honey and chilli sauce though!:P

Biggins

prinz wrote: »

Afraid you'll be outed soon as the Blue Army's man on boards? We know what you have in that green bag of yours.

You just wait till I pull out my big tool!

RichieC

Call it an army all you like, it's still just a group of stringy nerds sitting around drinking mountain dew and arguing about which mage rotation gives the best dps.

sensibleken

Who? When?

or should i say Hu? Wen?

prinz

Biggins wrote: »

You just wait till I pull out my big tool!

You're not Asian then..

Biggins

prinz wrote: »

You're not Asian then..

Well I won't be changing my name to Hung Loe any time soon.

General Zod

Fox News calling for the arrest of the Blue Man Group.

johngalway

Is this supposed to have been some sort of secret previously

prinz

General Zod wrote: »

Fox News calling for the arrest of the Blue Man Group.

Eiffel 65 are hiding in a basement in Switzerland.

Biggins

johngalway wrote: »

Is this supposed to have been some sort of secret previously

Shush - its the secret that everyone knows but is not allowed talk about this week! :pac:

Vicxas

prinz wrote: »

Eiffel 65 are hiding in a basement in Switzerland.

Thats for crimes against humanity, not governments..

johngalway

Biggins wrote: »

Shush - its the secret that everyone knows but is not allowed talk about this week! :pac:

Damnation, I never get these secret memos

ArtyM

They will never hack my systems - access is by spoken command only, password has loads or 'r's in it.

Berns

Biggins wrote: »

Shush - its the secret that everyone knows but is not allowed talk about this week! :pac:

Thought that was the Welsh Footballer that plays for Man Utd :rolleyes: or was that last week?

smk89

RichieC wrote: »

Call it an army all you like, it's still just a group of stringy nerds sitting around drinking mountain dew and arguing about which mage rotation gives the best dps.

As opposed to a group of stringy nerds sitting around drinking tea arguing on an internet forum.

Redlion

RichieC wrote: »

Call it an army all you like, it's still just a group of stringy nerds sitting around drinking mountain dew and arguing about which mage rotation gives the best dps.

This isn't a discussion about boards!

ejmaztec

Berns wrote: »

Thought that was the Welsh Footballer that plays for Man Utd :rolleyes: or was that last week?

Who, Giggabyte?

Biggins

ejmaztec wrote: »

Who, Giggabyte?

In that case, his career now needs a re-boot!

FGR

For a moment I was thinking that China was after announcing the creation of Skynet.

Show Time

Now i know where to lay the blame for my PS3 going arse up on me.

Manic Moran

RachaelVO wrote: »

It never would have dawned on me that all countries would have a cyber army. Of course it makes total sense, I just never had to think about it before.

US's verion of it is Cyber Command.

http://www.stratcom.mil/factsheets/Cyber_Command/

USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.

NTM

RachaelVO

Manic Moran wrote: »

US's verion of it is Cyber Command.

http://www.stratcom.mil/factsheets/Cyber_Command/



NTM

Jesus, it all seems so seedy of something... that's a mad link though!

Son Of A Vidic

With a bit of luck, hopefully this Chinese cyber army has only just hacked Windows 95.

Biggins

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

With a bit of luck, hopefully this Chinese cyber army has only just hacked Windows 95.

Going on previous Times reports, they have supposedly managed to hack a lot of the best and hardest systems out there or are continuing to try and do so.

TheReverend

http://www.jozzua.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/GeneralsHacker-188x150.jpg

They all look like that

Son Of A Vidic

Biggins wrote: »

Going on previous Times reports, they have supposedly managed to hack a lot of the best and hardest systems out there or are continuing to try and do so.

I have no doubt they have, my post was merely wishful thinking. Do you remember a few years ago, some Chinese Americans infiltrated Silicon Valley and were passing high tech data back to their Chinese handlers. It was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Biggins

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I have no doubt they have, my post was merely wishful thinking. Do you remember a few years ago, some Chinese Americans infiltrated Silicon Valley and were passing high tech data back to their Chinese handlers. It was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Indeed. I deeply suspect we have only heard of 5% (guess) of the current activities - if that.

TheBunk1

Awww, seems I misread Cyber for Cyborg. Sad face.

The Left Hand Of God

We have a cyber army too.

It's bloke in a secret location in Mayo, with a mac, on dial up.

Berns

The Left Hand Of God wrote: »

We have a cyber army too.

It's bloke in a secret location in Mayo, with a mac, on dial up.

You forgot to mention the treadmill for seperate power supply :rolleyes:

Manic Moran

Berns wrote: »

You forgot to mention the treadmill for seperate power supply :rolleyes:

Is it not a peat-burning turbine?

Here's the closest I can find to an official public Cyber Command website. The main one requires DOD authentication, sorry.
They have an RSS feed.

http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2010/0410_cybersec/

NTM

deathrider

You're dead right, man. That's definitely the long version.

ScumLord

Biggins wrote: »

I'm actually surprised they even admitted to its existence.

I don't think the Chinese give a flying **** what the rest of the world thinks at this stage, they know they have us by the short and curlys.

=

Biggins

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't think the Chinese give a flying **** what the rest of the world thinks at this stage, they know they have us by the short and curlys.

=

True.

johngalway

Manic Moran wrote: »

The main one requires DOD authentication, sorry.

Go on then, share, we won't tell anyone.

It's almost like you don't trust us or something :eek:

CreepingDeath

Biggins wrote: »

China Admits To Cyber Army.

Cybermen are no match for the Daleks.

Lanaier

They "admit" it?

This is common knowledge here, hardly newsworthy.
Slow news day at The Times.