Testimony before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives
Hearing on “The Google Predicament: Transforming U.S. Cyberspace Policy to Advance Democracy, Security, and Trade”
10 March 2010

China’s Approach to Cyber Operations: Implications for the United States (.pdf)
Larry M. Wortzel
Commissioner, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission

Chairman Berman, Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen, Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss how the People’s Republic of China approaches cyber warfare, cyber espionage, and how the United States might respond.

It is a pleasure to appear before you today on an issue of great significance to the United States and, indeed, the world. The views I will present here today are my own. They are a product not only of my service on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, but from my service as a military officer with significant background in intelligence and counterintelligence activities as well as decades of study of China.

The attacks on Google that prompted this hearing are the most recent example of a series of penetrations into the computer networks of American companies, departments of the U.S Government, and even some members of Congress. As the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has documented in its 2009 Annual Report to Congress, “China is the origin of extensive malicious cyber activities that target the United States.” Attribution of cyber penetrations and malicious cyber activity is difficult, and even quite sensitive, because if one describes how attribution is achieved, it tells the intruder how to modify its operations and make them more effective.

Our Commission, in a contracted report on “The Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation,” provided a case study of a multi-day penetration into the computer systems of an American high technology company and how the data acquired was transferred to an Internet protocol address in China. The report also discussed the principal institutional and individual “actors” in Chinese computer network operations as well as the characteristics of network exploitation activities that are frequently attributed to China. . . . .

♦ CI CENTRE BRIEFING: Chinese Cyber Trends: The 21st Century Battlefield

♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 107—China’s Current Targeting Trends

♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 207–An Introduction to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Intelligence and Counterintelligence Methodologies