The United States: the biggest culprit of the cyberattacks

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Xu Yi
Time
2019-06-19 19:12:57
The United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Security Service (CSS) have developed strong cyberattack capabilities.

By Qiu Chen and Li Chunqiu

Recently, China’ National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/ Coordination Center (CNCERT/CC) has issued China’s Internet Network Security Situation Report 2018. According to statistics, the largest amount of cyberattacks in China is from the United States and such attacks are growing in number. In fact, the US has been long accustomed to cyberattacks against sovereign states.

In 2004, a cyberattack launched by the US against Libya led to Libyan national top-level domain name virtually paralyzed. In 2010, Iran's nuclear facilities suffered from the "Stuxnet" virus attack and the behind-the-scenes player was the US. Venezuelan President Maduro claimed the recent devastating power outage that has hit the country was the result of a cyberattack by the United States. On May 20, US President Donald Trump publicly admitted in an interview that he had allowed the relevant authorities to launch cyberattacks against Russia in 2018, which paralyzed the network linked to the Russian Federal News Agency for several days. On June 15, The New York Times revealed that US government officials had admitted that malware had been embedded in the Russian electrical grid as early as 2012 and cyberattacks could be launched at any time if the need arises. In addition, behind the recent exposure of the most sophisticated cyberattack groups in the world, “the Equation APT group” and “Eyes of Sauron”, the shadow of the US National Security Agency could often be seen.

The US has always trumpeted the threat of a "cyber Pearl Harbor" attack. Ironically, as the most powerful country which has the most technologically advanced military, it is not only the originator of global cyberattacks, but also the country with the most cyberattacks and the strongest technology.

Since December 2002, the United States Army, Navy and Air Force have established their own cyber forces one after the other. In May 2010, USCYBERCOM was established. By the end of 2016, USCYBERCOM was elevated to the level of Unified Combatant Command, entitled with first-level full and independent combatant command, thus forming a three-tier cyberwarfare command mechanism of the President, the Defense Minister, and the Commander of the Cyber Command, and being enabled with the most powerful cyberattack capabilities.

In September 2018, US President Donald Trump signed the first fully articulated “cyber strategy” in 15 years, authorizing the US military to freely deploy advanced cyber weapons and carry out offensive cyber operations. This indicates that the current 133 US cyber warfare teams not only have full operational capability and adequate combat readiness, but also can use "Cyber Strategy" as the pretext to do whatever they like in cyberspace. The US Department of Defense (DoD) has also specifically announced the concept of “defense forward” in cyberspace, signifying that the US military will carry out cyber offensive and defensive operations in other countries rather than on US soil.

The United States has been long framing other countries as major threats to the US cybersecurity, but data show that the United States is the largest source of cyberattacks in the world. The United States has falsely accused other countries of attacking its critical network infrastructure without any concrete evidence, but at the same time, continued to infiltrate other countries. Such notorious cyberattacks are bound to be opposed and condemned internationally.

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