21st Century Chinese Cyberwarfare

Book excerpt: Military doctrine of The People's Republic of China (PRC) envisages war being waged in five spheres: land, sea, air, outer space and cyberspace. The PRC believes that the early degradation, or destruction, of an enemy's command and control infrastructure will significantly improve its chances of ultimate victory. But the Chinese 21st century approach to cyberwarfare is both more sophisticated and comprehensive than that. This book examines the military background to today's doctrines, and explores how the teachings of Sun Tzu (The Art of War), the Thirty-Six Principles from the Warring States era and the hard-learnt lessons of Mao's Long March infuse and support the modern state's approach to engaging with enemies and rivals. Chinese cyberwarriors, operating from behind the Great Firewall of China, have substantial campaign experience, and this book reviews operations from Titan Rain - sustained multi-year cyberattacks against the US that started in 2003 - to the most recent, ShadyRAT. This book also reviews the contributions made to the overall Chinese cyberstrategy by civilian hackers and state-owned enterprises and looks at how Advanced Persistent Threats already undermine many of China's rival states and enterprises. China's rivals lack a coherent cyberstrategy of their own. They also do not understand the complex cultural, political and historical routes of the modern Chinese state and this is a significant weakness. This book helps everyone with an interest in cybersecurity to 'know their enemy'. William Hagestad II is an internationally-recognized expert on the Chinese People's Liberation Army & Government information warfare. He advises international intelligence organizations, military flag officers and multi-national commercial enterprises with regard to their internal IT security governance and external security policies. The linguistic, historical, cultural, economic and military aspects of Chinese cyberwarfare are his forte.