According to a March 30, 2009 Wall Street Journal article, a network with computers in 103 countries targeted government agencies around the world including U.S. strategic assets.

Information Warfare Monitor, a Toronto-based organization, reported that 30% of the targets were high-value targets. The attacks originated from within China.

Researchers at Cambridge University alleged that the Chinese government or a group working closely with it was responsible for an attack on Tibetan dissidents. Of course, the Chinese government denies repeated “allegations” that it sponsors cyber attacks:

“The researchers said officials working with the Dalai Lama became suspicious that their computers had been compromised after a foreign diplomat the office had contacted by email received a call from the Chinese government discouraging a meeting with the Dalai Lama. They contacted security researchers, who started an investigation in June 2008. The researchers said they discovered the other affected computers by monitoring the systems that had attacked the office of the Dalai Lama. The reports were first reported by the New York Times.”

The U.S. Strategic Command, reported that attacks on U.S. military computers appear to have ties to China.

Malware programs trick a victim into opening an infected file attached to an email or downloading a file from a Web site. The emails appear to come from someone the recipient knows and may contain a file that recipient has been expecting, said Shishir Nagaraja, one of the authors of the Cambridge study.

The attacks result in control over the victims’ computers and files and passwords can be compromised or Web cameras can be activated at will. Keep in mind that it is unknown how many stealth programs may lie dormant waiting to be activated at an optimal time at which to impair financial, industrial and other communications infrastructure (within both the private and governmental sectors).

The military significance of such capabilities is impossible to over-estimate! According to Scientific American, the People’s Republic of China launched a series of network-based cyber attacks in September, 2007 against the U.K., France, Germany, and the U.S. See China’s Cyber Attacks:

“The cyber attacks against the U.S. stand out because security researchers have traced them back to the Chinese government. “Normally it is not possible to attribute the source of an attack, because source addresses can be spoofed,” says Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute in Bethesda, Md., which trains and certifies technology workers in cyber security. In China’s case, though, analysts tracked a series of 2005 cyber assaults against U.S. computers–dubbed “Titan Rain"–to 20 computer workstations in China’s Guangdong province, Paller says.”

The report cites strikes against the U.S. and its North American Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and the Baltic nation of Estonia’s information-technology infrastructure. The damage inflicted includes power plants and transportation systems, banks, stock markets and other financial institutions.

Alan Paller, director of research at SANS states:

“The precision of the attacks, the perfection of the methods and the 24-by-seven operations over two and a half years, and the number of workstations involved are simply not replicated in the amateur criminal community. Amateur cyber criminals do a lot of other things right, but this is an order of magnitude more disciplined than anything I have seen out of the hacker or amateur criminal community.”

Russia has also been involved in such attacks, even enlisting assistance from its citizens to proliferate and spread bots and other malware but “China’s goals are more subtle but no less dangerous,” according to the Scientific American article. It is well known in the intelligence community that China and Russia have been quietly developing the ability to conduct joint military operations for several years.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s report to Congress earlier this year analyzing China’s military capabilities asserts that China’s People’s Liberation Army has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks. “China is already engaged in cyber-theft and attacks against the U.S. and other countries that it perceives as its enemies. ,” the report says.

According to Jayson Street, an information technology consultant to the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, “The new Cold War is between China and the Western world.”

As the Obama administration raises these issues to a new level of strategic importance, North Korea has just declared an end to the ceasefire that downgraded (but never stopped) hostilities in the Korean War 56 years ago.

A few reminders are in order in connection with the “Forgotten War” now that hostilities have officially resumed. North Korea and China successfully worked together to conduct joint operations that engendered huge political, strategic and operational difficulties for the United States and the United Nations command. The Soviet Union and China were so successful in creating confusion as to how the decisions were being made to invade South Korea that historians are still debating the roles played by Stalin, Mao and Kim Il Sung.

The Truman administration made the decision to go to war in order to defend the U.S. position below the 38th parallel Korea after having broadcast mixed signals as to whether South Korea was within our defense perimeter. Because the Truman administration was politically vulnerable to Republican charges that it had enabled the Communist takeover of China, President Truman failed to act decisively and attempted to protect his “legacy” by blaming General MacArthur when the Chinese sprang a well-planned trap on United Nations forces as they approached the Yalu River.

The goal herein is not to argue the controversy between General MacArthur, his Commander in Chief and their respective adherents within academia. Rather than renew such a dispute, we prefer to suggest that themes that are outlined above are similar to 1950. The defense budget is being cut to the bone (Truman had also cut the budget and down-sized the military until U.S. preparedness was nonexistent). We have a President that is being called on to meet imminent threats with force. The roles of various nations are difficult to determine but there are multiple enemies (including the worldwide forces of jihad) that have shown an inclination to link up operationally behind the scenes.

Most of the U.S. public has no idea of how brutally the Chinese trap enmeshed its victims, American men sent to fight and die for a poorly defined U.S. policy. When the Red Chinese armies were discovered to already have enveloped U.N. forces, U.S. fighting men, many with little or no training and equipment, were already being mowed down with machine guns and mortar fire as they fled down the roads towards the South. Countless others were executed with their hands tied or imprisoned and tortured for years to come. Others died of the cold.

For months, many units, including certain intelligence officers, had reported mounting evidence of Chinese infiltration. Nevertheless, almost all of the accurate U.S. intelligence was suppressed; most of the vital information about China’s troop movements and intentions was filtered through a lens of partisan political interest at a number of different levels.

The Obama administration has just announced new military architecture, a command that will wage war in cyber-space. President Obama also should be asking his advisors, could we be living in a time like 1950 when most the experts were in denial as to the risk of China entering the battle space by crossing the Yalu River when the U.S. was unequipped,undermanned and unaware.