Foreign technology collection efforts have “eroded the US military advantage by enabling foreign militaries to acquire sophisticated capabilities that might otherwise have taken years to develop.”
“[M]assive” industrial espionage has “undercut the US economy by making it possible for foreign firms to gain a competitive economic edge over US companies.”[1]
Dr. Brenner’s report goes on to say that foreign intelligence efforts increasingly “rely[] on cybertools to collect sensitive US technology and economic information.” Foreign intelligence agencies do this by “placing collectors in proximity to sensitive technologies or else establishing foreign research” by “forming ventures with US firms.”[2] The report specifically identifies China and Russia as the leading culprits.[3]
Dr. Brenner characterized China as “very aggressive” in acquiring U.S. advanced technology. “The technology bleed to China, among others, is a very serious problem,” he said in March 2007, noting that “you can now, from the comfort of your own home or office, exfiltrate information electronically from somebody else’s computer around the world without the expense and risk of trying to grow a spy.”[4]
On November 15, 2007, the bipartisan, congressionally chartered U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) put a finer point on it: “Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies.”[5] Cyberpenetration is by far China’s most effective espionage tool, and it is one that China’s spy agencies use against America’s allies almost as much as against U.S. targets.
Genesis of China’s Cyberwarfare
In the 1990s, China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS), which manages the country’s police services, pioneered the art of state control of cyberspace by partnering with foreign network systems firms to monitor information flows via the Internet.[6] By 1998, according to an insider’s account of China’s Internet development, the MPS and its subordinate bureaus found that their resources for monitoring the Internet had been…
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