Fergie's Tech Blog

China's Cyber Attacks Signal New Battlefield Online

Larry Greenemeier writes on Scientific American:

The uproar over claims that the People's Republic of China launched a series of network-based cyber attacks earlier this month against the U.K., France, Germany, and the U.S. has died down. But few expect China to back off efforts to gain the upper hand in the battle of bits and bytes. China's own stated military goals include improving the country's ability to wage information warfare.

The most recent cyber attacks against the U.S. stand out because they were traced back to the Chinese government. "Normally it is not possible to attribute the source of an attack, because source addresses can be spoofed," says Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute in Bethesda, Md., which trains and certifies technology workers in cyber security. In China's case, though, analysts tracked the cyber assaults to 20 computer workstations in China's Guangdong province, Paller says.

posted by Fergie @ 9/18/2007 06:40:00 PM