A Hack is a Cough, an Amateur or, in China, a Hero

 

"China has built the world's most comprehensive ecosystem for capture-the-flag (CTF [hidden pieces of data (the ‘flags’]) competitions—the predominant form of hacking competitions, ranging from team-versus-team play to Jeopardy-style knowledge challenges… China's CTF ecosystem is unparalleled in size and scope—something akin to four overlapping National Collegiate Athletic Associations, each with a primary government sponsor just for cybersecurity students to exercise their skills… Many of these marquee competitions include talent-spotting mechanisms for recruitment." 

 Per a report from the D.C.-based Atlantic Council think tank.

Donald Trump’s unabashed priorities – as evidenced by his cabinet picks – focus heavily on making clear that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is America’s primary enemy. Tariffs. International waterways. Technology security. Social media control (like TikTok). Maybe even Taiwan. Trump’s continued relationship with Russia’s Putin and his closeness to Israel’s Netanyahu suggest that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza will be relegated to sideshow distractions as his administration focuses on marginalizing, isolating and containing Xi Jinping’s global ambitions… particularly challenging that Chinese President’s effort to marginalize the United States, create workarounds against the domination of the dollar and US trading platforms, and cement international ties to limit American influence outside of our traditional allies.

Traditionally, the United States has been wary of cozy relations between Moscow and Beijing. That entente has recently witnessed a strange move of those two powers to work together more, particularly in joint efforts at countering the United States in her own Arctic backyard. But Russia’s engagement with North Korea, including that small nation’s sending thousands of troops to fight against Ukraine, seems to be a threat to China’s unique and primary relationship with Pyongyang. China’s ground forces truly outnumber ours; her air power dominates her region well beyond any countermeasures we might mount, and while still not as advanced as out naval capacity, the PRC has a larger total fleet and an overwhelming sea-based advantage in China’s neighborhood, including a new naval base in the Spratley island chain. Missiles, jets and nukes? Oh yeah!

Even as China’s economy is still suffering from a real estate, banking and unemployment crisis, US tariffs are a genuine threat to her recovery. But Xi has been preparing for years to trip up and contain US economy and military dominance in anticipation of this ultimate showdown. She has engaged in industrial espionage on an unprecedented scale and has created one of the most effective and highly substantial programs that hack our most sensitive private sectors (from medical, social media, power grids, financial to cutting edge technology) and our government. China’s capacity to spy and misinform through hacking may be the most sophisticated on earth.

As the above quote suggests, “Hacking competitions in China have surged over recent years, supported by strong government backing and rising public interest, raising alarm in the U.S., where officials are warning that the widening cyber skills gap is placing America at a strategic disadvantage and posing national security risks.

“China has made great strides since President Xi Jinping's call for the nation to become a ‘cyber powerhouse’ a decade ago. University programs in cybersecurity have been standardized, a National Cybersecurity Talent and Innovation Base capable of certifying 70,000 cybersecurity experts per year was established, and hacking competitions—many touting their alignment with Xi's ‘powerhouse’ ambition—have proliferated…

“Jessica Ruzic, deputy associate chief of policy at the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), pointed out during an Atlantic Council event streamed on Saturday that the long-term focus of China's authoritarian, one-party state model has afforded it more continuity than the short-term approach seen in democracies like the U.S.

“‘China's mentality is that they are building something structural, and the U.S. mentality is that we are trying to solve a problem that's right in front of us,’ Ruzic said during an online event hosted by the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. ‘The U.S. government as a whole is not set up for long-term strategic thinking. That's just not the way that term limits work, right?... Frankly the time to establish a foundational strategy for countering PRC… malicious cyber activity was 20 years ago…”

“Dakota Cary, co-author and nonresident fellow at the Global China Hub and co-author of the Atlantic Council report, pointed to a difference in focus between Chinese and American CTF competitions… ‘The U.S. CTF ecosystem generally hosts defensively oriented competitions designed to assess participants' ability to secure their systems against attack. For many of China's CTFs, offensively oriented skills are tested and prioritized,’ he said.

“When asked about the U.S.'s cyber capabilities since whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency's global surveillance programs, Cary said perceptions of U.S. dominance are outdated… ‘Large-scale, back-end collection is now incredibly difficult due to pervasive encryption,’ he said. ‘The U.S. system was previously unparalleled, but many in the field now admit that China is the more capable actor. The scale of its research community dwarfs other nations, both due to China's size and its focused effort over the last decade.’” Newsweek, November 12th. With China’s ability to throw hundreds of thousands of operatives at targeted hacking, the aggregation of bits of hacked “flags” can be monumental.

What are they looking to do (or might have already accomplished)? “FBI director Christopher Wray and other intelligence officials have warned Chinese hackers seek to lay the groundwork for the country to disrupt critical infrastructure when the moment is right, as well as engage in intellectual property theft… ‘The PRC has a bigger hacking program than every other major nation combined,’ Wray said in a Congressional hearing earlier this year. He warned that hackers are laying the groundwork to ‘wreak havoc’ on American infrastructure when doing so would benefit China.” Newsweek.

They can also subtly sow dis- and mis-information into social media at an unprecedented rate, often exceptionally difficult to trace, but quite capable of planting credible conspiracy theories that are quickly lapped up by gullible Americans seeking evidence to support their political leanings. Are the Chinese better at this technological challenge than we are? Vastly. Is their cyber hacking capacity larger and more effective than ours? Vastly. Just look at how “vast and influential” TikTok is today. Red (literally) alert!

I’m Peter Dekom, and the raw political ambition of a Chinese autocrat, who has disposed of term limits a long time ago, is thoroughly focused on unseating the United States from its primacy in global influence, military power, technology and economic domination.