The Socialist Left-wing Dictatorship of the People's Republic of China created Information Warfare Units a decade ago.  Their military could not outspend the U.S. nor probably develop core technologies that would exceed American capabilities.  So, like the very old students of Sun Tzu that they are, the Chinese People's Liberation Army has created a complete strategy for cyberwarfare.  And what if the Communists work in tandem with terrorists?

Highlights from a recent Washington Post article, "China proves to be an Agressive Foe in Cyberspace"

•In April, then-National Counterintelligence Executive Joel F. Brenner reported that the Chinese had penetrated "certain of our electricity grids" with malicious code and that "our networks are being mapped"

•China's Academy of Military Sciences published an account of a trial project in the Guangzhou Military Region to establish information-warfare militia units using local telecommunications companies as a source of talent, funding and technology.

•Another problem is China's ability to leave behind malicious sleeper code that can one day be activated to alter or destroy information. In April, then-National Counterintelligence Executive Joel F. Brenner reported that the Chinese had penetrated "certain of our electricity grids" with malicious code and that "our networks are being mapped"

A report in the article, "Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation
Prepared for The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission"  might be found on the interenet.

Another insightful article, "China's Cyber Army is Preparing to March on America, says Pentagon."

*Chinese military hackers have prepared a detailed plan to disable America’s aircraft battle carrier fleet with a devastating cyber attack, according to a Pentagon report obtained by The Times.  The blueprint for such an assault, drawn up by two hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea.

*Larry M. Wortzel, the author of the US Army War College report, said: “The thing that should give us pause is that in many Chinese military manuals they identify the US as the country they are most likely to go to war with. They are moving very rapidly to master this new form of warfare.” The two PLA hackers produced a “virtual guidebook for electronic warfare and jamming” after studying dozens of US and Nato manuals on military tactics, according to the document.

Programmed to attack

Malware: a “Trojan horse” programme, which hides a “malicious code” behind an innocent document, can collect usernames and passwords for e-mail accounts. It can download programmes and relay attacks against other computers. An infected computer can be controlled by the attacker and directed to carry out functions normally available only to the system owner.

Hacking: increasingly a method of attack used by countries determined to use electronic means to gain access to secrets. Government computers in Britain have a network intrusion detection system, which monitors traffic and alerts officials to “misuse or anomalous behaviour”.

Botnets: compromised networks that an attacker can exploit. Deliberate programming errors in software can easily pass undetected. Attackers can exploit the errors to take control of a computer. Botnets can be used for stealing information or to collect credit card numbers by “sniffing” or logging the strokes of a victim’s keyboard.

Keystroke loggers: they record the sequence of key strokes that a user types in. Logging devices can be fitted inside the computer itself.

Denial of service attacks: overloading a computer system so that it can no longer function. This is the method allegedly used by the Russians to disrupt the Estonian government computers in May.

Phishing and spoofing: designed to trick an organisation’s customers into imparting confidential information such as passwords, personal data or banking details. Those using this method impersonate a “trusted source” such as a bank or IT helpdesk to persuade the victim to hand over confidential information. (Michael Evans)