Reading The Cable on Capitol Hill

The Cable got a little love in Congress yesterday from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, as he pressed Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair on the recent China-Google spat and the broader issue of Chinese government sponsorship of cyberattacks and online espionage.

Here’s Whitehouse, referencing our recent story on the subject:

And I want to read from you, a couple of statements from a recent article in Foreign Policy magazine by Josh Rogin. He reported that senior U.S. military officials believe, quote, "the Chinese government is supporting hackers that attack anything and everything in the national security infrastructure on a constant basis."

He continues, "the Defense Department has said that the Chinese government, in addition to employing thousands of its own hackers, manages massive teams of experts from academia and industry in cyber militias that act in Chinese national interest with unclear amounts of support and direction from Chinese Peoples Liberation Army."

It seems that the analogy in cyber warfare goes back to the ancient days of naval combat when nations not only sent out ships under their own flag to engage in warfare but also offered to private ship owners, to pirates, indeed, letters of mark to go out and act in that nation’s interest. What do you believe are the most important structural deficits that we have and need to fix in dealing with state sponsored cyber attacks on our country that either come through false legs or are hidden behind work stations that are located all around the world in order to be able to deter these attacks.

And if it makes a difference, could you distinguish between what Mr. Rogin referred to as hackers that attack anything and everything in the national security infrastructure on a constant basis and the brain drain that we face from wholesale industrial espionage — stealing our manufacturing and technological secrets so that competitors abroad can take advantage of them without paying for the intellectual property they have stolen.

Blair didn’t respond directly, acknowledging only that government-sponsored hacking has advantages over simple criminal hacking because it can be linked up with human intelligence. He also appeared to downplay the significance of official Chinese involvement, saying, "The nature of this threat is pretty much the same no matter who is doing it. It’s just the resources they have to put against it."

Whitehouse was quick with a rebuttal. "Those resources can matter a lot when it ends up to thousands or even tens of thousands of attacks daily and weekly," he said.

In his prepared remarks, Blair spoke extensively about cyberwarfare but didn’t reference China in that section. In the section on China, he didn’t reference cyberespionage. But Blair did say, "I am here today to stress that, acting independently, neither the U.S. government nor the private sector can fully control or protect the country’s information infrastructure."

Meanwhile, the Senate is making clear its view that China’s suppression of Internet freedom and their cyberespionage activities, as evidenced by the Google attacks, are a major national security concern.

The Senate passed on Monday night a resolution spearheaded by Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman that "condemns the far-reaching cyber attacks allegedly launched from China against Google, at least 34 other companies, and numerous individuals discovered in December 2009" and "calls on the Government of China to conduct a thorough review of these cyber intrusions, and to make the investigation and its results transparent."

“Last night [Monday], the Senate spoke in one voice, calling on the Chinese government to investigate and explain the recent cyberattacks and expressing serious concern about ongoing attempts by China and other countries to restrict press and Internet freedom,” said Kaufman. "Governments who use technology to silence their citizens or restrict the free flow of information should consider themselves on notice.”