To be at the leading edge with public observation can be both a painful and lonely place to be - but then if we only speak in repetitions about what to be known or safe, I doubt this approach would amount to any form of commercial or academic learning or progress.
It was approximately two years commenting on what many had been saying in private, relating to the involvement of China in Cyber Spying, and the mounting attacks against government targets. What was even more interesting was, at that time was, many in higher law enforcement positions, or other public office, fully agreed with what had been stated. However, it was made very clear that, with the Olympics pending, the timing of any such statement imperfect!
The counter argument was, that whilst, admittedly there was no clear and conclusive evidence that any such actions were state sponsored by the Chinese Government, or for that, even condoned, thus the underpin of the assertion could be considered flawed – right! However, given that China (.cn) boasts a Cyber connected Firewalled environment, supported by an estimated 30,000 operatives who are empowered with monitoring, and high surveillance capabilities, which can detect even, the slightest whiff of cyber-dissent, then does this not beg the question as to how such hostile cyber-aggression could be accomplished without state detection!
Could it be that the perpetrators have knowledge of the internal security mechanisms deployed within the surveillance shroud of the Great Firewall, so thus may easily circumvent its controls and detection mechanisms? Or could it be that such actions are fully, or partly sectioned, and sponsored by Government Agencies?
Lastly is it the case that, whilst such activities are not state sanctioned, or sponsored, they do enjoy some liberal blind-eye tactics which allow such unfettered cyber attacks to continue?
Research into this subject, aligned to harvested data obtained from commercial organisations, clear evidence and artifacts have been found to exist, which, by interpretation strongly infers that attempted cyber incursions and attacks had been mounted from the electronic soil of China.
In some cases, the particular attacks ran on a daily basis, targeting a number of large commercial organisations located in both the UK and the US. What was even more interesting about the vectors of attack was, in a number of cases, the time, size, and profile of the attacks were extant on each and every day – one could ask the question why? In a number of these identified cases, some organisations found they could technically tolerate the conditions, as they had not manifested in any apparent operational impact.
Even more worrying, even though these probes were regular, they were not reported in to any agency, or authority!
Back in 2008, post the reported attacks against the UK, the US, and Germany, which were tagged Titan Rain, protests were made to the Chinese Government about these miscreant cyber focused activities. At that time, whilst not fully explicit, the inference was that some state owned accountability was associated to the encountered aggressive cyber attacks.
The concern is now, were we, or are we, at the tip of the cyber-iceberg, with the remainder seven-eighths staying out of view, suggesting we should expect to see more of these types of activities in the future? – many feel the conclusive answer is - Yes!
