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What Cyber Espionage Groups Steal from the United States
Anything that could give United States rivals a competitive edge against the country can be stolen by cyber espionage groups. Among the things that are stolen are intellectual property, blueprints for technology concepts, and research and development advancements (Rogers, 2012). These are used to produce copies, or versions of products or develop ideas without the consent of the rightful owner of the products or the ideas. Furthermore, the people who own the rights do not receive any compensation for the use of their products or ideas.
Another thing stolen by the cyber espionage groups include merger and acquisition opportunities and negotiation information. The target of this type of cyberespionage is valuable insider information such as financial situation, business plans, and negotiation strategy. Anyone who holds this information regarding a company has the upper hand in negotiations and could easily influence the outcome of a proposed deal.
Evidence that these Attacks are coming from China
Brian Shields, who was an information technology security expert at Nortel Networks while working at the company, found an intruder on their internal networks. The intruder had stolen passwords and log-in information that spanned to the top of the organization. Tracking the intruder’s movement on the network and tracing the I.P address showed that the address originated from Shanghai.
After resolving the threat and changing the password of the compromised accounts, Shields still continued to monitor their networks. One day as he was analyzing the company’s CEO internet activity, he saw some data moving from the CEO’s computer to Beijing. This raised concern because what the CEO’s browsing pattern at that moment did not fit in with what was sent from the computer.
Another fact that is provided as evidence although it is circumstantial is that just as Nortel Networks started collapsing due to the hacking, a Chinese telecommunication company called Huawei started rising. It is believed that the company was directly benefitting from the spying of Nortel Networks.
Motivation for the Chinese Government to Conduct Cyber Espionage against the United States
The Chinese government is motivated by political and economic reasons to conduct cyber espionage activities against the United States. This is because China suffered colonization and massive bullying from western powers like the United States in the past and do not want to depend on them for any important technologies. The Chinese government does not want to fall behind in technological because this would slow their economic development. According to a China expert named Adam Siegel, the Chinese government is ready and willing to provide funding to any company that will increase its market share in the technological world (Rogers, 2012). Anything that will move a product from made in china to invented in China no matter what means is used to get it there is highly embraced by the Chinese government.
Reasons why Nortel Management and other American Management do not take the Chinese Threat Seriously
Most American corporations do not admit to having been hacked. This is because this would be bad for a company’s reputation especially those dealing with sensitive data. As such, most breached companies opt to keep it under wraps and deal with the situation discretely. Also, most cyber espionage activities come from China, coming out publicly and accusing China of the attacks could have some negative implication on the business. First, providing solid proof that it was China behind the attack is very difficult. Second, some corporations that have huge market shares in China are afraid that blaming the country would create bad blood making it hard to do business in China. Breached organizations also do not have any idea of what was stolen from their networks.
Attacks on American Corporate and Military Computer Systems are Increasingly Sophisticated
I believe the claim that attacks on American corporates and military computer systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Attackers are finding new and more creative ways to infiltrate systems every day. Even the most advanced security systems in the world are vulnerable to risks posed by hackers. RSA, a security analytics company for information systems, was once breached by Chinese hackers. The hackers used a cyber-bomb to gain access to the company’s network. The cyber-bomb was sent to the organization’s employees as an email and looked like a normal Microsoft Excel document sent from a legit company. According to the company’s executive director, almost everyone could have opened that document. The document contained an adobe file that spread malicious software on a computer whenever anybody opened it. The software would then allow the hackers to advance further in the RSA network and gain access to all their data.
Chinese hackers are also known to use a malware known as the command control tool that is used to manipulate a victim’s computer. The tool does not appear on the screen and runs in the background, and users are completely oblivious to the existence of the malware on their computers. Brian Shield said that looking at Norton’s network logs, the Chinese intruders had been in the system for close to a decade. Even after the compromised passwords had been changed, the Chinese hackers continued to spy on the company for another five years before conclusive evidence was found.
Chinese hackers also used the zero-day vulnerability to take advantage of a flaw in the internet explorer and gain access to Google networks (Rogers, 2012). All they did was send a link via instant message impersonating a person he user knows. Once the user clicked on the link, the attackers would have control over their computers. Intruders have also found a technique to encrypt data while they are stealing so that investigators cannot know what was stolen.
Technology Transfer
It is believed that the United States will soon lose its competitive advantage to China, with companies like Google’s DNA being drained to China. I disagree with this statement because as much as the Chinese government may gain access to various data through cyber espionage attacks they have to make some variations to the products and ideas to avoid legal issues. Also, most of the products from China are assumed to be fake and are not trusted by most people.
Another way of transferring technology is through reverse engineering of copyrighted products. This is usually seen when a company outsources its manufacturing to China and the Chinese people study the products and develop their version. This practice is legal in China and is not prohibited.
There are various ways of mitigating reverse engineering of intellectual property licensed products. First, any intellectual property should be copyrighted and their patents filed. Contracts with manufacturing partners should be airtight and include confidentiality provisions to avoid any future intellectual property issues. Second, the company has to study and chose trustworthy manufacturing partners carefully. Finally, organizations can use multiple Chinese companies to manufacture different components of their products. This will ensure that no single manufacturer can duplicate their products.
Comments
China is known as the greatest and most persistent cyber espionage attacker. However, evidence shows that most countries across the world in some activity that could be termed as espionage (Laudon and Laudon, 2014). Most of these activities are illegal in both the target and initiating countries. The target nations have advanced technologies and are economically powerful, while the attacking nations are mostly developing countries with high demand for intellectual property. The aim of cyber espionage is to infiltrate without detection and remain in place to gather information. This together with sophisticated ways used by attackers makes it hard to detect breaches. Also, most corporates are reluctant to report breaches for various reasons. Due to this reason, the overall effect of cyber espionage is not known. As such, most corporate managers do not know how serious the effects of the attacks can be on an organization, and are quick to dismiss the attacks once they think they have been dealt with. This has enabled hackers to continue carrying out cyber espionage attacks.
Recommendations
Cyber espionage is a serious issue with adverse effects that should be given the necessary attention it deserves. Corporate managers should be educated on the seriousness of cyber espionage and their impacts. It should also be mandatory to report any breaches so that investigations may be carried out and their impacts evaluated. Companies outsourcing their manufacturing to Chinese firms should be told of the dangers and taught how to mitigate them. The United States government should negotiate with the Chinese government to create laws against reverse engineering.
Conclusions
Cyber espionage is happening every day and has led to the collapse of many companies. No organization is safe from the potential threat of getting breached. It is also hard to detect or investigate the attacks. Due to this reason, it is advisable that corporates implement mitigation measures. This will significantly decrease the impacts of cyber espionage.
Bibliography
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P. (2014) ‘Securing Information Systems’, in Management Information Systems. .
Rogers, M. (2012) CNBC - Cyber espionage: The Chinese threat. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js52FjOsgPA (Accessed: 26 April 2016).
