back to article Chinese cyber strikes will be 'like WMD'

A US government panel specially created to warn of danger from China has warned of danger from China. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) says the People's Republic is brewing cyber network attacks which could cause "disruption and chaos" with the "magnitude of a weapon of mass destruction". The USCC …

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  1. bambi

    Red mist

    God damn commies!!

    Still its somewhere else to invade I spose...

  2. Andrew Moore
    IT Angle

    But...

    It's well known that america doesn't even know what a WMD is. Chimpy McFlightsuit can't even spell it!!!

  3. David Evans

    What's Lewis Page's point?

    ...That the Americans shouldn't keep an eye on China? Or that all the things about China in the report are irrelevant? As far as I can see its a perfectly legitimate report. The fact that China is the world's sweatshop and now its biggest polluter, AND a nasty one-party state with population and resource problems and a rapidly developing military should be a cause for concern for us all.

    The biggest problem we have with China is that we have very little leverage over them that won't damage our own economies.

  4. Dan

    one of our dinosaurs is missing

    scoff all you like, you still can't trust the bastards.

  5. Jim
    Joke

    Aren't they forgetting...

    the secret tunnel under the Pacific, allowing the yellow peril to rise from the ground and overwhelm the US?

    Also, nice to see you managed to get that Apple dig in cos, like, every other computer company abhores the concept of outsourcing manufacturing, oh wait...

  6. Piers
    Black Helicopters

    Welcome to the Real World...

    "The biggest problem we have with China is that WE HAVE VERY LITTLE LEVERAGE OVER THEM that won't damage our own economies."

    Very little leverage - you mean they might not do what the USA wants! Heaven forfend!

  7. laird cummings
    Flame

    Moonlight Maze, part XLVI

    Sweet Jaysus...

    Clarke, Hamre, & Co, or their spiritual heirs, are at it again. Electronic Pearl Harbor! CyberWar! We're all doomed by the Godless Commies who will pollute our precious electronic fluids! We're already in a cyberwar! We have always been in a cyberwar! Righthink! Goodthought! Doubleplusgood!

    Feh.

    Someone get these microcephalic gits a new supply of tin foil; their caps are getting a bit worn.

  8. TeeCee Gold badge
    Black Helicopters

    'like WMD'?

    How exactly?

    Non-existant? Great for embarassing senior politicians? Handy for scaring the public? Making good newspaper headlines on a slow news day? Illustrating how bleedin' useless the spooks are? Covered in sand?

    We need to know.

    Still, nice to see the US government following El Reg's lead and putting out some vacuous fluff on Friday to provide a bit of light entertainment going into the weekend.

  9. Chris C

    Reasons for buying

    Yeah, people in the U.S. buy products made in China because they're cheaper. Sure. Someone should tell those who wrote the report that the reason we in the U.S. buy products made in China is because that's all that's bloody available! Nearly everything you buy (certainly all electronics) have those little "Made in China" stickers. What the hell do U.S. companies actually make anymore, aside from agriculture (which I fear will decrease in order to use the land for "biofuels")?

  10. mr.K
    Black Helicopters

    Blame Canada!

    I'll settle for the last two lines in the South Park-song Blame Canada:

    "We must blame them and cause a fuss

    Before somebody thinks of blaming us."

    Oh, and one more thing: The Chinese shouldn't have anything to fear from the US forces, when US fighter planes crash* from crossing the dateline.

    http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6225

    *The word "crash" might not be the best word for describing a software malfunction in an aircraft.

  11. leslie
    Flame

    its all your own fault.......

    If you buy from them, they will grow.................

    then you stop building your own things, and they take over.......

    In the UK (yes I am) I bet we could not even construct a good VHS vcr never mind a DVD player on our own soil....

    hell we dont even make tractors any more, sorry I was meaning Rovers.

    And the report has missed the point that every bit of electronic equipment is just waiting for them to send the self destruct signal....

    The real danger is we have crippled our own countries ability to build and thus defend itself in exchange for cheap consumer goods, now they are better at construction than us.

    Thing is, what do they do with all the money we send them for those cheap goods.....

  12. Sillyfellow
    Coat

    do i see USA readying for their next invasion?

    yes indeed. good ol USofA.

    let's whip everyone into a 'imginary threat' frenzy once again...

    oh, i wonder why... could it be part of the master plan to take over the whole world? need an excuse?

    no need to bother with UK though... USA already owns Gordon B.

  13. johnny
    Thumb Up

    oh no, what a shame...

    Oh woe is me. I feel so sorry for the nouveaux-imperialist hypocrites that my mug is almost full from tears streaming down my cheeks since i noticed the American economy may be threatened. I'd rather eat dog than have to listen to shop clerks asking me to have a nice day. Wait a minute, that's already happening....

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What we should be concerned about..

    Is the fact that China is doing so many, many deals buying up Countries oil production for many decades into the future and effectively trying to monopolise the supply as much as is possible. They are aiming at many Countries on a number of continents ,such as Africa etc which will become big suppliers in coming decades. We, the West, need to get much more pro active.

    As for the Chinese hacking into US systems, that should be taken up at diplomatic levels firstly and if proven there should be trade sanctions of some kind imposed in retaliation to ensure they know that this will not be tolerated.

  15. ryan

    Chinese cyber strikes will be 'like WMD'

    So they don’t exist then, yeah?

    hang on America is getting a wee bit ahead of itself here. Weren't they on about bombing Iran last month - now china, seriously Bush don't bite off more innocent civilian deaths and illegal wars over natural resources than you can chew.

  16. David Evans

    @Piers

    "you mean they might not do what the USA wants! Heaven forfend!" Well, if by "USA", you mean "The West", then yes, I mean exactly that. If China's aims aren't compatible with our own, (and in the case of China that's obviously the case in a number of areas) then you look at ways to fix that, economically, politically, or if necessarily, militarily. This isn't a case of we're the good guys and they're the bad guys, (although on balance, we're the bad guys and they're the worse guys), its normal political planning, and as I said, what's alarming is that if China decides to get..."assertive", shall we say, then we don't have much comeback short of toothless UN resolutions or wheeling out the killware, because in the economic sphere we're already beholden to China. That's what comes of quietly ignoring an unpleastant political regime in order to keep the price of iPods down.

  17. Daniel
    Boffin

    huh. your problems haven't even *started*

    Wait until they realise (like the japs did) that there is *even more money* in making high quality goods, rather than cheap crap. Your soft bloated arses won't stand a chance.

    Mind you, it'll be no more than 20 years after that before they achieve affluence, and become more interested in girls panties in vending machines, or comic books, than actual *work* (just like you lot did, in a way).

    If they really wanted to screw you up, they wouldn't have to do much. Just sell dollars. They could make Venezuela look like a fucking pillar of economic stability compared to you, if they wanted.

    Isn't it called "market forces", by the way?

  18. Paul

    Pot calling the kettle black

    How hypocritical can you be? USA has a head in the sand approach to Global Warming. One of the largest polluters on this planet and they have the nerve to point the finger at China. Clean up your act USA and then maybe you will have the right but until that day - STFU on the subject.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    What is America's biggest single export?

    "The Chinese government's deliberate undervaluation of the renminbi makes US products more expensive to Chinese consumers who therefore purchase fewer of them."

    As measured in US$ what is America's biggest single export? Answer? The US$ of course!

    This is the reality of it, Cheney's an idiot, he said that deficits don't matter (back in 2002) and ran the economy at a tax deficit. To cover that deficit he sold US bonds and ran the country into a hefty debt. When foreign countries couldn't soak up the bonds, so he sold them to the federal reserve, who use them as collateral to print dollars against.

    So the US became awash with US$, which grew faster than the companies profits grew, so that got invested in property rather than shares because shares aren't so profitable. So unsafe mortages resulted, people had to borrow big, but couldn't afford the repayments because their salaries were not increasing fast enough.

    But then he needs to pay back the bonds that are maturing, but he won't raise taxes to do that because it politically bad when people are stretched paying their mortgages, and he can't borrow money to do that because he's already maxed out the US credit card to cover his deficit, so what does he do?

    He prints more money.

    http://agonist.org/bernanke_opens_the_floodgates_of_money

    Oh, but people would notice that M3 money supply number shooting up so they stop releasing the M3 figure.

    So now we have the real world, and the Bush/Cheney world far far apart. The Saudis are awash with $ and break ranks with the US, and the Chinese threaten to dump the US$ if Congress keeps blaming them for the mess.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/09/19/bcnsaudi119.xml

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml;jsessionid=WGIN12NGSYQS5QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/money/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml

    Bush Cheney's response is to start saber rattling. Talk of US dollar collapse is now terrorist talk, China is a security threat whose cyber legions of doom will attack the US. Threat levels are raised, rhetoric is raised, they hate our feedom bwaaaaa.

    This last year of those two idiots is going to be a rough one. Better buckle up.

  20. Guy
    Black Helicopters

    Who do you trust more, or should that be least?

    If it came down to picking teams, single party country, choose between communism(china) or religion (america), I'll take the communism please. the good(god?) ole US of A has a right to be afraid, they can't invade, they can't impose trade sanctions and even old dubya wouldn't be daft enough to send a nuke across(hopefully). They can't bully and will have to deal with them in a fair and just manner (something that went out of the window a hundred years ago or so)....welcome back to the real world

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Usual alarmist tripe

    Cue explanation from Dick Destiny...

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gold farmers

    And the damned commies are farking gold farmers and account thieves, FFS.

    I say melt their faces while there's time!

    /Get T5 chest piece

    /heart

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    lol

    yeah @the china is the only country that build stuff.

    LoL what I love is when our APC (America power something or other) UPS's come through they're all made in China. I assume the cardboard box is made in assembled in America.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Fear not...

    I've been working in China for over a year now, and have the following observations to make:

    1/ They say in London, you're never more than 6' away from a rat. In China you're never more than 6' away from a blithering idiot.

    2/ Just make your mainland roads one-way and straight - if they ever get as far as invading, they'll zig-zag their way into a wall or on-coming traffic. No, really... blind cactii could pilot cars in a more convincing fashion.

    3/ Feel free to tell them the quickest way to infiltrate your government with fully illustrated plans, supporting documentation and relevant experience. Then watch in disbelief as they decide, based on their 1/10th of your experience, that they can't stand to listen to the westerner they paid good money to import for advice and take the week off to look after their wife on full pay because she woke up a bit miserable last week.

    4/ When visiting any outside facility/country, the most impressive move you can make is sit in full view of everybody and fall asleep after lunch: snoring, face down on the table with your arms spread-eagle is favourite...

    4a/ If you can't snore because you hocked up the entire contents of your nose/throat/lungs in the ashtray of the guy having a quiet smoke (who is now reaching to the very bottom of his stomach), just ingest some dog-sh1te and have a good conversation - face to (close)face to brighten his day further.

    5/ Take full advantage of your exported knowledge. 'Merkin educated Chinese (sorry 'Merkins I speak only of what I know) are the best of everything. Well educated - for 20 years +(could write a thesis on the origins of the broom, wouldn't know which up to hold it. Could work out the square area of a jam-jar lid, wouldn't know how to open it. etc., etc...)

    6/ Find some kind of adrenaline fueled thrill from trying to pile 20 people onto a subway train, with room for 2 people (and only 1 other wants to get off....) I actually saw someone die through this. No, really. Despite this diatribe, it wasn't funny).

    7/ Make your parking bays marginally larger than the footprint of the Empire State Building. This is extremely effective. It takes 1 Chinese driver, and 5 Chinese observers who saunter along within the ensuing 1.5 hours to guide the driver in.

  25. Joey
    Alert

    WMD...

    ...I'm more worried about their MSG. They've been putting it in my takeaways for years! When the order eventually goes out, Chinese restaurants will simply replace it with rat poison to speed up the process. We are all DOOMED!!!

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    pissy

    The US is just getting pissy because China is beating it at its own 'capitalist' game!

  27. sam

    Title

    at least the yanks still make the best porn movies

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @sam

    shrub and dickhead may be seriously sick fucks, but I would not ever class that as "porn".

  29. Sergei Andropov

    Don't be so dismissive

    It's easy to assume that everything that comes out of the Bush administration, or even the US government in general, is false; however, that's not always the case. I know from a relative who works in the government, and has to deal with this stuff on a daily basis, that China is indeed waging cyber-warfare against us, and has been doing so for quite some time. The government has only recently been starting to admit this, and the media has been ignoring it entirely.

  30. crayon
    Pirate

    @What we should be concerned about..

    "Is the fact that China is doing so many, many deals buying up Countries oil production for many decades into the future ... We, the West, need to get much more pro active."

    So you're saying that it's bad for China to be *buying* oil and instead they should follow the proper procedures like invade oil-rich countries under the pre-text of WMDs, and when none are found change the mission objectives to (1) making said oil-rich country into a "beacon of democracy"?

    @Don't be so dismissive

    "I know from a relative who works in the government, and has to deal with this stuff on a daily basis, that China is indeed waging cyber-warfare against us"

    And are you too naive to realise that the US is also "waging cyber warfare" against every other country of significance? I don't see other countries making a song and dance about it.

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