Information Warfare: China and the Cyber Gangsters

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June 2, 2006: China is showing more indications that it's growing Cyber War capability is actually being put to use. An increasing amount of criminal Internet use is coming out of China. Parallel with that is Chinas formation of a civilian reserve of Internet experts, to help out in wartime. Meanwhile, there is the murky situation regarding who controls all the criminal Internet activity in China. Since China is a police state, and much emphasis, and effort, is put on controlling the Internet, this sudden growing in criminal hacking in China looks suspicious. National governments, especially police states, have been known to cut deals with organized crime. China has made a big deal out of getting the majority of its civilian hackers organized for "national defense." Hacking the Internet is no longer mainly the pastime for bored teenagers. It's big business, especially in countries that are ignoring this sort of thing or, perhaps like China, where the government will become your partner.

American Cyberwarriors wish China would show its hand by actually doing something with it's, so far, rumored Cyber War arsenal. This may happen if there's another spat with Taiwan. It is known that Chinese generals deploy virtual Internet attacks during wargames (military exercises.) They also deploy virtual tanks, aircraft and ships. The question is, do they have real Cyber War weapons to back up the virtual ones?