China military admits cyberwarfare unit exists - Technology & science - Security - msnbc.com

China military admits cyberwarfare unit exists - Technology & science - Security - msnbc.com



China military admits cyberwarfare unit exists
The government says it exists to protect Chinese networks from attacks
5/26/2011 

The Chinese military has established a cyberwarfare unit to protect Chinese networks from
external attacks, a military spokesperson admitted in a news conference Wednesday.

The elite cyberwarfare unit of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is called the "Online Blue Army," the
People's Daily Online reported. It is tasked with enhancing Chinese troops' military training and network
security, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Senior Colonel Geng Yansheng said.


"Currently, China's network protection is comparatively weak," Geng said. "Enhancing the informationization level and strengthening network security protection are important components of military training for an army."


China's suspected participation in recent high-profile cyberattacks against, among others, Google, Morgan Stanley and DuPont, however, have security experts doubting the intentions of the PLA's "Blue Army."

George Smith, senior fellow at GlobalSecurity.org, told SecurityNewsDaily the creation of the
elite military unit "offers a resource" for more Chinese-borne cyberattacks. Establishing a
cyberwarfare military unit, Smith added, "provides a piece of convenient rationalization" for other
nations to create similar teams.
Although yesterday's announcement was the first official acknowledgement of the unit, the PLA
Daily revealed that a military "Internet operation team" had conducted exercises in China's Guangzhou
Military Region in late April, Focus Taiwan reported.


During these drills, the teams "launched multiple attacks on imaginary enemies by releasing huge
amounts of useless documents and viruses to try to paralyze the enemies' computer systems and to
steal information from them," according to Focus Taiwan.