- TAIPEI, Taiwan - China's
military is moving ahead with development of information warfare capabilities
and appears to have orchestrated recent computer attacks on Taiwan, the
top electronic warfare general here said. Top Stories
-
- Air Force Lt. Gen. Abe C. Lin, director of the Defense
Ministry information and electronic warfare directorate, said in an interview
with The Washington Times that the People's Republic of China is developing
a variety of information warfare and electronic combat weapons in preparation
for a conflict with the Republic of China - also known as Taiwan.
-
- The weapons include:
-
- *Electromagnetic pulse missile warheads that can disrupt
the electronics of weapons systems by creating an electronic shock similar
to that caused by a nuclear blast.
-
- *Computer viruses that can be unleashed against both
military and civilian computer networks, such as banking and stock market
systems, to cause social unrest and create chaos.
-
- *"Trojan horse" computer programs, planted
in networks, that appear as useful programs but covertly unleash destructive
software.
-
- *Spies planted within the military and government who
could sabotage computer networks in wartime.
-
- Taiwan's military has not experienced any destructive
"insider"-based attacks on its networks. However, there have
been incidents involving soldiers who misused their access to networks
without causing damage, Gen. Lin said.
-
- A second senior defense official here said China also
is developing microwave electronic weapons to disrupt military electronics.
-
- "The first wave of a Chinese military attack on
Taiwan would be a major information warfare strike," this official
said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
-
- Gen. Lin said China's government has denied it had any
role in numerous coordinated computer attacks from the mainland in recent
months.
-
- However, the attacks were all carried out using a similar
methodology, even though they originated from several different Chinese
provinces. The similarities have fueled suspicions that the Beijing government
was behind the computer strikes.
-
- On May 20, for example, there were major computer intrusions
coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian's
inauguration, he said.
-
- A large number of mainland hacker attacks also took place
after the April 1 collision between a Chinese F-8 fighter jet and a U.S.
EP-3E surveillance aircraft.
-
- The May 20 attack was unique. "We have already experienced
a lot of Trojan horses," Gen. Lin said. "But it was the first
time they sent a Trojan horse into one of our main Web sites as a leaping-off
point to attack somebody else. It was a good lesson for us."
-
- The unidentified Chinese who planted the Trojan horse
were successful in exploiting weaknesses in a computer operating system,
he said.
-
- China's military announced in 1999 that it planned to
develop a large-scale information warfare component that would be equal
in stature to its army, navy and air force.
-
- Gen. Lin said Taiwan is working on its own information
warfare attack capabilities. But he declined to discuss any details.
-
- Gen. Lin said Taiwan's military uses an isolated network
for its communications and information transfers but also uses the public
Internet as a backup system.
-
- The military network is rarely attacked but is monitored
round-the-clock, he said.
-
- Taiwan's public computer networks, however, are vulnerable
to disruption, and it is these systems - used for both government and private
communications - that the military is in charge of protecting, he said.
-
- "This part is the main focus of mainland China,"
Gen. Lin said. "They try a variety of ways to attack, and so far we
can see very clearly when and how they are trying to attack."
-
- He also said that Taiwan is preparing to counter Chinese
military information and electronic warfare operations, adding that Beijing
harbors aggressive tendencies toward the United States as well.
-
- "One element of [China's] combat readiness is to
prevent U.S. troops from entering the Taiwan Strait and the boundary area,"
Gen. Lin said in an interview in a ministry conference room.
-
- "So they are developing different types of electronic
warfare weapons to destroy the information grid, not only in Taiwanese
weapons platforms, but in U.S. weapons platforms as well, just in case
the United States tries to deploy their weapons in this area," he
said.
-
- China's military forces, which are now conducting large-scale
war games on Dongshan Island, north of Taiwan, reportedly practiced a first-phase
military strike using information and electronic warfare attacks. http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20010722-949860.htm
|