Topic: Cybercrime is it relates to Chinese hackers and operators with the purpose of fulfilling national focuses issued by President Xi Jinping within the economic, political, and military aspects of power.
5-8 sources cited and referenced within the paper
APA Format
Minimum 6 pages, not including title page or bibliography
Outline:
Title:
China’s Cyberespionage Attempts to Further Global Standing
Thesis:
Chinese hackers are recruited by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to carry out cyberespionage activities in efforts to further the political, economic, and military status of China on a global scale.
Outline:
Introduction:
Section 1: History of China’s cyber development
Section 2: President Xi Jinping’s economic, political, and military goals
Section 3: China’s hacking groups
Section 4: How cyberespionage can/will further Xi Jinping’s goals
Section 5: Recent cyberespionage attempts and global impacts
Conclusion:
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China’s Cyberespionage Attempts to Further Global Standing
Introduction:
Over the years, national security and cyber power have attracted much attention in most countries, including the United States. Countries are advancing on various tactics, practices, and protocols in dealing with cyber-terrorism as a current global issue. China and the United States has been on the frontline in developing cyber powered techniques and practices to reduce and prevent cyber-attacks (Inkster, 2015). The implementation of cyber power has raised many debates on whether the method is defensive or offensive towards other nations (Shoebridge, 2018). Chinese hackers are recruited by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to carry out cyber espionage activities to further the political, economic, and military status of China on a global scale. The paper is a discussion of China’s cyber-espionage attempts to further global standing.
Section 1: History of China’s cyber development
Over the years, people used land and sea in conducting attacks as the two main physical methods. In 1903, people started using air, where attackers could hijack airplanes and ships. Further, the evolution of terrorist attacks led to the use of the space domain in 1957 (Inkster, 2015). Cyberspace took a course in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The advancement in technology brought about the use of cyberspace as a physical and a virtual platform. Cyberspace includes an independent framework of information technology that uses computer systems, telecommunication networks, and the internet (Shoebridge, 2018). Cyberspace has evolved as human civilization evolves, enhancing the innovation of new software and hardware.
The evolution of cyberspace and Chinese hacking began in 1994 when the internet was first established. After three years, in 1997, China had developed three hacking websites used to copy information from other sites. China hackers in the nineteenth century used simple tactics, compared to today. Hackers could hack foreign webpages using toolkits and other email-based attacks (Shoebridge, 2018). Hacking activity became extensively practiced in 1998 and 1999 during the Indonesian war. The Indonesian triggered the Chinese through the attack, where Indonesians could rape and murder Chinese people. Before Chinese hackers did not have a malicious intention until 1989, the Chinese became malicious attackers (Inkster, 2015). Today china conducts multi-national cyber attacks targeting foreign government websites. Chine cyber attackers began conducting their practices on the GAO Chunhui website.
1997, the green army was the first hacking group that operated in cities, such as Shanghai, Shijiazhuang, and Beijing. Also, the group had not less than three thousand members, drawing the formation of more groups, such as the peng Quan and Huang Lei. The birth of Chinese hacking took place in 1989, where the country began to develop hacking programs (Shoebridge, 2018). For instance, China’s first program includes the glacier Trojan horse virus, where today, Chinese hackers use Network Thief, Xsan, Black Hole, and network thief. The development of programs and hacking teams have led to significant malicious intrusions. Additionally, the famous red hacker was developed after the United States invaded China killing three Chines (Banks, 2016). The hacker web pages are used to date in efforts to attack Japan and Taiwan. To date, china’s cyber power is influential and focuses on security objectives.
Section 2: President Xi Jinping’s economic, political, and military goals
According to President Xi Jinping, over the past decades, China’s economy has grown, calling for an expansion of national security (Shoebridge, 2018). President Deng Xiaoping’s primary focus is on securing the external environment to promote its economic status. However, the president uses countries’ economies in pursuit of security, for instance, debt-trap diplomacy. Chinese corrupt acts, environment degradation, inferior quality products, and investment projects have led to XI development of centralization of power to regain economic diplomacy. Since the cold war, China uses economic incitements in dealing with issues and dealing with border issues (Shoebridge, 2018). China’s economic statecraft has been very beneficial, regionally, and internationally. Chinas economic benefits are translated into political results. President XI Jinping ensures, development of the economy by enhancing political opposition, transparency, and free media provision. On the other hand, China is developing military goals by implementing current security programs, such as lethal forces (Banks, 2016).
China’s military has grown to gain confidence and become a stronghold for the country. President Deng Xiaoping enhances the development of military tactics to promote the country’s political and economic status (Shoebridge, 2018). President Xi Jinping’s primary goal is to develop political, economic, and military independent diplomats to attract attention in global interactions and other global international forums.
Chinas military department is more equipped in cyberspace, with flexible policy than the previous ground-based and defensive security policy. On the other hand, China’s military leaders have powers in implementing foreign policies hence playing a vital role in china’s politics and the economy (Gilli, and Gilli, 2019). China’s military focuses on political, social, and economic development to counter-terrorism through cyber hacking skills and information technology expertise. President Xi uses the Chinese communist party to gain economic clout through electoral financing and political donation. Xi primarily designed the Chinese communist party to gain political influence in nations (Shoebridge, 2018).
Section 3: China’s hacking groups
Chinese hacking groups have recently started conducting cyber espionage attempts after being dormant for a while (Shoebridge, 2018). China hacker groups target government agencies and large companies to acquire valuable data through stolen passwords and the use of new software. Some of the hacking groups include the popular APT2 and the 3bug, which target institutions such as the military, schools, telecommunication companies, and health facilities (Banks, 2016). According to Fox-it, the hacker group conducted a cyber-espionage in aviation, insurance companies, gambling agencies, and finance. Another popular hacking group includes the Nikon group, which was reported to conduct espionage against the government. The hacker group’s primary targets include Brunie, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Nikon collects valuable geopolitical information from the countries, where the primary goal is to gather intelligence and spy on nations around the world (Banks, 2016). Also, Chinese hacking groups conduct hacking practices to improve their tactics and skill, where the group has conducted more cyber espionage in 2019 and 2020. Other groups include the elder wood group, hidden lynx that target industries, dragon OK, Moafee, shell crew, state-funded, and winning umbrella, as part of the Chinese intelligence team (Qian, 2019). The groups are divided according to motives, where others are concerned with surveillance, for example, the Evil Post, SYCMONDR, and Danti. Politically oriented groups only focus on attacking various countries, especially the united states (Shoebridge, 2018). For instance, the Bronze Butler targeted Japan, Key Boy, China Girl Security, and the Honker Union of China, focusing on the Philippines, Japan, USA, and Vietnam.
Chinese hacker’s community is categorized into computer experts, malware tool developers, black-hat hackers, researchers, and security analysts (Qian, 2019). Chinese hacking groups use search engines, such as Google, China, Yahoo china, and other sites and blogs. China hacked are motivated by finances, technical interest, and nationalism. China holds a hacking competition attended by most hacking groups to show their expertise, such as the blue lotus capture flag (CFT). According to motivation and main focus, Chinese hacking groups consist of blue hackers, red hackers, and black hackers. Chinese hacker groups have a profoundly patriotic and nationalistic culture (Qian, 2019). Chinese hacker groups are linked to the Chinese liberation army (PLA) and the strategic support force (SSF). On the other hand, according to the United States, Chinese hacker groups are connected to china’s tech giants, such as Huawei.
Section 4: How cyber espionage can/will further Xi Jinping’s goals.
Despite the meeting between Barrack Obama and Xi-Jinping in California, China considers cyber espionage a necessary tool for a national strategy (Shoebridge, 2018). According to experts, Cyberespionage enhances china’s national progress in terms of military, economic, and political diplomacy (Qian, 2019). Cyber espionage will further Xi-Jinping’s goals to make the country influential and a tool for offering security. For instance, through hacking skills towards more than one-hundred thousand the United States and other countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, china can protect itself from any planned attacks.
Through economic and political spying, china gains economic superiority and diplomacy over other countries in efforts to control and develop economic and policy strategies that would en hence the growth of China (Shoebridge, 2018). The goal of Xi- Jinping is to be a superpower by taking over the United States’ supremacy. China has been accused of meddling in United States political affairs in the past election and the current election (Shoebridge, 2018). China has benefited from the cybersecurity threats, while countries such as the united states are suffering big time. The communist party is a significant priority in china, as it has opened more economic opportunities, where Jinping declared economic espionage as the most important for China.
Section 5: Recent cyber espionage attempts and global impacts
Cyber espionage has been an issue globally concerning cyber warfare, where most nations have unique definitions and objectives of cyber espionage. Cyber espionage is a secret tool used by nations, especially in Russia, the United States, and China (Iasiello, 2016). Cyber espionage has cause various impacts globally, affecting the economy, and political aspects of many nations, including the United States. Recently, China and the United States have been at loggerheads due to trade espionage during the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese hackers have also been accused of spying on Taiwan elections, where hackers infiltrated Taiwan media and universities. The principal aim of Chinese espionage was to support the opponent of Taiwan president known as Han Kuo-Yu.
On the other hand, Elite hackers have attempted a cyber-espionage towards the world health organization during their pandemic. The hacker’s main agenda was to acquire medical information and research work concerning the current pandemic. The global impacts of cyber espionage include monetary loss, damage to infrastructure, and economic loss. According to research, cyber espionage impacts are more severe than cyber warfare from a global perspective (Iasiello, 2016). Countries with physical properties that have been affected should use the Stuxnet virus, for instance, impacting oil, defense systems, gas, and electricity. Since the United States has been the main target, china’s espionage towards Taiwan and the US has affected their politics by influencing people and hacking into administrative information systems (Gilli, and Gilli, 2019). Also, cyber espionage has affected international relations, especially between China and other countries. For instance, China and the United States, middle- east countries, some third-world countries.
Conclusion:
Chinese hacking skills have developed since the early nineteenth century from simple to malicious cyber intrusions. China consists of more than twenty hacking groups categorized according to motivation, such as political motivations (Gilli, and Gilli, 2019). China cyberespionage has been an essential tool for China, which has influenced china’s political, economic, and military diplomacy. China, Russia, and the USA are the three countries popularly known for spying to gain supremacy. Cyber espionage has raised concerns globally, where the impacts have affected countries’ physical infrastructure, economic status, and political status. Cyber espionage is considered to bring negative impacts compared to positive impacts.
References
Banks, W. C. (2016). Cyber espionage and electronic surveillance: Beyond the media coverage. Emory LJ, 66, 513.
Gilli, A., & Gilli, M. (2019). Why China has not caught up yet: military-technological superiority and the limits of imitation, reverse engineering, and cyber espionage. International Security, 43(3), 141-189.
Iasiello, E. (2016). China’s three warfares strategy mitigates fallout from cyber espionage activities. Journal of Strategic Security, 9(2), 45-69.
Inkster, N. (2015). Cyber Espionage. Adelphi Series, 55(456), 51-82.
Qian, X. (2019, July). Cyberspace security and US-China relations. In Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (pp. 709-712).
Shoebridge, M. (2018). Chinese cyber espionage and the national security risks Huawei poses to 5G networks. Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy.
Shoebridge, M. (2018). Chinese cyber espionage and the national security risks Huawei poses to 5G networks. Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy.
