Highlights
– South Korean military targeted
– China uses hacking to influence Taiwanese elections
– Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party targeted
– China will continue to use cyber attacks to exercise influence and project power
China’s cyber espionage campaign has been documented and it is now understood that it uses computer techniques to steal secrets from the military-industrial complex of several of its rival countries. Previous cyber attacks attributed to China include hacking attacks against:
– United States (Previous Report)
– Germany (Previous Report)
– United Kingdom (Previous Report)
– France (source)
– Australia (source)
– New Zealand (source)
New Target, Same Goals
On January 1, 2008, Korean media reported that the South Korean military has issued a report detailing Chinese cyber attacks against the Korean military (source). It is believed that Chinese hackers sent phishing emails to Korean soldiers. These emails were allegedly designed to infect the targeted soldiers with viruses and steal sensitive information from the Korean military.
The Chinese military has most likely recognized the high reward and low risk nature of cyber espionage. These attacks allow the Chinese military to steal an incredible volume of data at a very low cost without the risk of arrests, detentions, expulsions, and demarches that are typically associated with such an aggressive espionage campaign. As such we expect this campaign of cyber espionage to continue in the long-term.
New Targets, Different Goals
While much attention is given to China’s cyber espionage campaign, it is also apparent that China, likely via the People’s Liberation Army, is using its expertise in cyberspace in other ways to project its influence.
For example, on January 4, 2008 the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Sandy Yen announced that “Chinese hackers” had penetrated computers in Taiwan belonging to the Central Election Commission, the legislature, and certain legislative candidates (source). According to Yen, the hacker’s targeted DPP candidates in an attempt to negatively impact the party’s electoral prospects and shape the outcome of Taiwanese elections.
It stands to reason that China would want to harm the DPP’s fortunes, as the party has publicly declared its intention to pursue independence from China – a policy that China is staunchly opposed to.
That China would attempt to manipulate Taiwan’s elections should come as no surprise. Foreign countries have long tried to sway the internal politics of both friends and rivals.
In the digital age it is theoretically possible that an undetected series of cyber attacks could influence the outcome of a national election and therefore it should be expected that China, and other countries, will in the future use these techniques to exercise control over an ally or a rival’s internal politics.
