Is China Really a Cyber ​​Power? Report Ft

In December, US officials discovered that Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, had hijacked SolarWinds software to penetrate government targets in Washington, including the Commerce and Treasury departments. Three months later, Microsoft's email software was compromised by suspected state-backed Chinese hackers to probe US non-governmental organizations and think-tanks.

IISS researchers ranked countries on a spectrum of cyber capabilities, from the strength of their digital economies and the maturity of their intelligence and security functions to how well cyber facilities are integrated with military operations.

China, like Russia, has a proven track record in offensive cyber operations – conducting online espionage, intellectual property theft, and disinformation campaigns against the United States and its allies. But both countries have been held back by relatively weak cybersecurity relative to their competitors, according to the IISS.

As a result, only the United States is classified as a top tier cyber power by the think-tank, with China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France and Israel in the second tier. The third tier includes India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.

Greg Austin, an expert on cyber, space and future conflicts at the IISS, said media reports that only focus on the positives of China's digital advancements – such as its aspirations to become a global leader in artificial intelligence. – contributed to an "exaggerated" perception of his computer skills. "By any measure, cybersecurity skills development in China is in a worse position than many other countries," he said.

According to the report, Beijing's focus on "content security" – by limiting politically subversive information on its national internet – may have diminished its focus on controlling the physical networks that carry it. The IISS also suggested that China's analysis of cyber intelligence was "less mature" than that of the five intelligence allies Eyes (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), because it was led by ideology and "increasingly intertwined with … the political objectives" of the leaders of the Communist Party.

Austin said the information age is reshaping global dynamics, where traditionally powerful countries like India and Japan have started to lag behind in the third tier of cyber operators, while smaller countries like Israel and Australia have built. cutting-edge computer skills that pushed them to the second level.

What sets the United States apart in the first tier, according to the IISS, is its unparalleled digital-industrial base, its cryptographic expertise, and its ability to execute "sophisticated and surgical" cyber attacks against adversaries. Unlike adversaries like China and Russia, the United States has also benefited from close alliances with other cyber powers, including its Five Eyes partners.

However, the United States and its allies were increasingly at risk of ransomware attacks – such as those on Colonial Pipeline and the Irish Health Service last month – by Russian criminal hackers who are not state-run but whose activities are apparently tolerated by the authorities.

Robert Hannigan, former director of the British intelligence agency GCHQ and now a senior executive at cybersecurity firm BlueVoyant, said he agreed with many of the IISS's findings, but questioned how much Beijing and Moscow would be held back. from weak IT defenses.

"While it is true that cybersecurity is less developed in Russia and China, they need it less urgently than open Western economies," Hannigan said. "The threat is not symmetrical: Western economies are under siege by cybercrime groups based and tolerated or authorized by Russia – the same is not true in reverse."

He added that while Russia is aware that the West would not indiscriminately target critical civilian infrastructure in a destructive way, Russian agencies "have a license to be reckless." "This in turn calls for higher levels of cybersecurity in the West," he said.