China Finally Accepts it has an Army of Hackers

The fact that China is having an army of hackers isn’t surprising; instead, acceptance of this fact by China is shocking. United States, India and many other countries have been suspecting this communist nation for a long time for carrying out cyber attacks. But, the every instance and complaint made was denied by China in the past.

Now, China has decided to unveil the curtain covering this mystery. The latest edition of The Science of Military Strategy, which is a respected analysis of Chinese military actions and thinking, has written about China’s cyber-warfare army.

A Chinese military strategy expert at the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, Joe McReynolds told that China has accepted the fact that it uses hackers and cyber-warfare units. He called this release as a “once in a generation” document. For the first time, China has said, “Yes, we do in fact have network attack forces, and we have teams on both the military and civilian government sides.”

Back in the year 2013, Mandiant, an American security agency, published a sixty-page report with information about the Chinese hacking group Unit 61398. This mischievous group was suspected of doing damages to American companies and government via its headquarters located in Shanghai.

In 2014, U.S. filed criminal charges against five Chinese military officials: Gu Chunhui, Wang Dong, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Sun Kailiang. They were accused of hacking and are the FBI’s most wanted Chinese hackers.

 

CHINESE CYBER WARFARE UNITS

According to McReynolds, China has three types of operational military units:

• Specialized military forces to fight the network -- The unit designed to carry out defensive and offensive network attacks.

• Groups of experts from civil society organizations -- The unit has number of specialists from civilian organizations – including the Ministry of State Security (its like China’s CIA), and the Ministry of Public Security (its like FBI) – who are authorized to conduct military leadership network operations.

• External entities -- The unit sounds a lot like hacking-for-hire mercenaries and contains non-government entities (state-sponsored hackers) that can be organized and mobilized for network warfare operations.
  

  CHINESE CYBER UNIT 61398

  In 2013, American private security firm Mandiant published a 60-page report that detailed about the notorious Chinese hacking group 'Unit 61398', suspected of waging cyber warfare against American companies, organizations and government agencies from or near a 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai.

  The UNIT 61398 also targeted a number of government agencies and companies whose databases contain vast and detailed information about critical United States infrastructure, including pipelines, transmission lines and power generation facilities.
  
  

  MOST WANTED CHINESE HACKERS

  Last year, the United States filed criminal charges against five Chinese military officials, named Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, for hacking and conducting cyber espionage against several American companies.
  
  The alleged hackers were said to have worked with the PLA’s Unit 61398 in Shanghai. Among spying on U.S companies and stealing trade secrets, they had also accused for stealing information about a nuclear power plant design and a solar panel company’s cost and pricing data.