Wow. Just wow.
On Jan. 27th, 2012, Mike McConnell, Michael Chertoff, and William Lynn co-authored an Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal on Chinese cyber-espionage. If you don't recognize the authors, it's a veritable all-star team of US national security figures: Adm. McConnell was the former director of the NSA and director of national intelligence; Mr. Lynn was the deputy secretary of defense and undersecretary of defense; and Mr. Chertoff was the former secretary of DHS. This WSJ op-ed was just . . . stunning.
The authors open with the following line: "Only three months ago, we would have violated U.S. secrecy laws by sharing what we write here." When you read that, you know what follows will probably be good.
The authors go on to discuss the pervasive level of Chinese cyber-espionage and note that "the Chinese government has a national policy of economic espionage in cyberspace." Noting the previous ONCIX report and various other reports on Chinese cyber-espionage, the authors believe that China wants to build its economy entirely through intellectual property theft. This, of course, leads to a corresponding "catastrophic impact" on the US economy.
Interestingly, the authors believe that the threat of Chinese cyber-espionage "looms even more ominously" than threats like cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure and cyber-terrorism in general.
The authors offered several solutions for stopping Chinese cyber-espionage: respond through diplomatic and economic channels; force the private sector to share threat information through cybersecurity legislation; invest in science and math education; and ensure that Corporate America does more to report incidents of cyber-espionage.
The authors conclude by noting that China will take a center stage during the election year.
You can find the Wall Street Journal source article here. Definitely worth a read.
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This article really caught my eye for several reasons.
First, the authors: these men were top US national security officials, so their thoughts on this topic are especially significant. These men, expressing these views, in a prominent US newspaper, has to send a strong message. The US simply can't ignore Chinese cyber-espionage any longer. I'm really excited to see how the Chinese respond to this. $10 says it's something along the lines of "China is a victim of cyber-attacks."
Second, the argument that Chinese cyber-espionage "looms even more ominously" than cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure and cyber-terrorism. Now, I don't know what the authors meant by "looms even more ominously"; does it mean that the threat of cyber-espionage is more likely than a cyber-attack on critical infrastrucure (which I think we all would agree with), or does it mean that cyber-espionage has a bigger overall effect than a cyber-attack on critical infrastrucure? If it's the second idea, that's pretty interesting. In effect, would the combined effects of cyber-espionage have a larger impact on the US than the electric grid failing? Maybe so.
Third, the recommendations for action. The authors said that the US government should "respond" to cyber-espionage through diplomatic channels. Moreover, China (and perhaps that response) will take on special signifigance during this election year. Not to toot my own horn, but does any of that sound familiar? Will the Obama administration confront China?
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