On Tuesday, October 4th, the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), surprised many people when he publically stated that China's current cyber-espionage efforts are at an "intolerable level." As reported in a Washington Post online story that day, Rogers said China’s espionage targets go beyond the U.S. government and military to include scores of private American companies. "Beijing is waging a massive trade war on us all, and we should band together to pressure them to stop," Rogers said.
To date, the cyberattacks in East Asia have been relatively benign, said Christopher Bronk, who is a fellow in information technology policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and a former U.S. State Department diplomat. Bronk is also the author of "Blown to Bits: China’s War in Cyberspace, August–September 2020," a fictitious account of a cyberwar with China, which was published in March in the U.S. Air Force journal Strategic Studies Quarterly.
"House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers is right to raise concern on this issue," Bronk said. "The list of companies who have had major breaches of their information systems leading to the theft of their intellectual property is mushrooming. They are dealing with highly sophisticated foreign intelligence services that will purloin proprietary information and hand it over directly to companies in their countries."
Bronk said firms in Houston, as a center of the global energy industry, are at particular risk to cyber-espionage efforts directed at the theft of everything from engineering specifications and strategic planning documents to bid data.
Regarding China's role in the espionage, Bronk said, "There are many countries with active cyber-espionage programs, but China is particularly menacing because of the direct channels that likely exist between its intelligence service and its nationally owned industries, including those in aerospace, information technology and oil and gas.
"There's a lot to be learned from Google's experience in all this," he said. "They were willing to say, 'We've been hacked and here's who we're pointing the finger at,' which in their case was China. The institution we have to develop is an intelligence-sharing function where industry, academia and government study the attacks that occur collaboratively rather than siloing that information inside their organizations. This will be unpalatable to many involved, but the bottom line is this: Any company that innovates can see all of that R&D effort go out the door with one good hack, and that will put them out of business."
Contacts and sources:
David Ruth
Rice University
"Blown to Bits: China’s War in Cyberspace, August–September 2020":
www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/2011/spring/bronk.pdf
Washington Post story on Rogers' comments about Chinese espionage:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmaker-calls-for-international-pressure-to-stop-chinas-cyber-espionage/2011/10/04/gIQAAR26LL_story.html
More on Christopher Bronk:
http://bakerinstitute.org/personnel/fellows-scholars/cbronk
Bronk previously served as a career diplomat with the Department of State on assignments both overseas and in Washington. His last assignment was in the Office of eDiplomacy, the department’s internal think tank on information technology, knowledge management, computer security and interagency collaboration. He also has experience in political affairs, counternarcotics, immigration and U.S.-Mexico border issues. Since arriving at Rice, Bronk has studied a number of areas, including information security, technology for immigration management, broadband policy, Web 2.0 governance and the militarization of cyberspace. He teaches classes on the intersection of computing and politics in Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering.
Bronk has provided commentary for a variety of news outlets, including ABC, NPR, the BBC and the Houston Chronicle.
Bronk has a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He also studied international relations at Oxford University.
To date, the cyberattacks in East Asia have been relatively benign, said Christopher Bronk, who is a fellow in information technology policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and a former U.S. State Department diplomat. Bronk is also the author of "Blown to Bits: China’s War in Cyberspace, August–September 2020," a fictitious account of a cyberwar with China, which was published in March in the U.S. Air Force journal Strategic Studies Quarterly.
"House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers is right to raise concern on this issue," Bronk said. "The list of companies who have had major breaches of their information systems leading to the theft of their intellectual property is mushrooming. They are dealing with highly sophisticated foreign intelligence services that will purloin proprietary information and hand it over directly to companies in their countries."
Bronk said firms in Houston, as a center of the global energy industry, are at particular risk to cyber-espionage efforts directed at the theft of everything from engineering specifications and strategic planning documents to bid data.
Regarding China's role in the espionage, Bronk said, "There are many countries with active cyber-espionage programs, but China is particularly menacing because of the direct channels that likely exist between its intelligence service and its nationally owned industries, including those in aerospace, information technology and oil and gas.
"There's a lot to be learned from Google's experience in all this," he said. "They were willing to say, 'We've been hacked and here's who we're pointing the finger at,' which in their case was China. The institution we have to develop is an intelligence-sharing function where industry, academia and government study the attacks that occur collaboratively rather than siloing that information inside their organizations. This will be unpalatable to many involved, but the bottom line is this: Any company that innovates can see all of that R&D effort go out the door with one good hack, and that will put them out of business."
Contacts and sources:
David Ruth
Rice University
Related links:
"Blown to Bits: China’s War in Cyberspace, August–September 2020":
www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/2011/spring/bronk.pdf
Washington Post story on Rogers' comments about Chinese espionage:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmaker-calls-for-international-pressure-to-stop-chinas-cyber-espionage/2011/10/04/gIQAAR26LL_story.html
More on Christopher Bronk:
http://bakerinstitute.org/personnel/fellows-scholars/cbronk
Bronk previously served as a career diplomat with the Department of State on assignments both overseas and in Washington. His last assignment was in the Office of eDiplomacy, the department’s internal think tank on information technology, knowledge management, computer security and interagency collaboration. He also has experience in political affairs, counternarcotics, immigration and U.S.-Mexico border issues. Since arriving at Rice, Bronk has studied a number of areas, including information security, technology for immigration management, broadband policy, Web 2.0 governance and the militarization of cyberspace. He teaches classes on the intersection of computing and politics in Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering.
Bronk has provided commentary for a variety of news outlets, including ABC, NPR, the BBC and the Houston Chronicle.
Bronk has a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He also studied international relations at Oxford University.
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