8.9 Basics of State Strategy of Ensuring Cybersecurity
817
Chinese military and political authorities have always been aware that in the event
of a direct military confrontation with the United States, the People’s Liberation
Army of China (PLA) will not really be able to withstand this well-armed and trained
opponent from across the ocean. Therefore, the Chinese have bet on the development
of special cyber divisions and the so-called economic cyber espionage.
For example, according to estimates of authoritative experts, hacker attacks and
cyber espionage against a number of Western countries (and not just them) are objective reality at the time of publication of this book. The information acquired by such
cyber warriors is subsequently presented to the corresponding special services or
industry representatives. In response to multiple assumptions that this sphere is occupied exclusively by individual Chinese hackers, who have been somehow “offended”
by the US government, we should note that the possibility of independent hacker
activities here is almost impossible due to specifics of the local Internet legislation.
On an unrelated note, we should say that China is actually the pioneer in the
field of the Internet regulation: there is no other place in the world with such level
of censorship and closeness of the national information space (except for PRK, of
course). The country created the so-called Great Chinese Firewall. To be fair, this
system in fact helped shield China from various negative effects of the World Wide
Web, as well as from intervention attempts by various foreign hackers. Each of
the authors of this book has visited China many times over the last 20 years and
can confirm that the Internet is used in China very actively for development of all
directions of the national economics, education, and medicine; China is forming the
electronic government system and has even created its Chinese analogs of Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram.
However, as far as we can confirm based on our personal experience, it is not so
easy to become an Internet user in China. To do this, it is first necessary to register in
a police station and provide a corresponding certificate to the Internet provider. By
the way, our trusted Chinese partners warned us unofficially that there are policemen
who constantly monitor the current situation in the network in management of all
PRC providers. Any resource found to publish materials that discredit the policies
of the government and the Communist Party of China is closed without unnecessary
ceremonies with harsh consequences for the owners of the site. Perhaps, government officials of other countries shall also take this non-democratic experience into
consideration?
Now, several words shall be said about the doctrine of information security of the
Russian Federation, which is based on the assumption that the modern cyber threat
is more and more used exclusively to solve military and political tasks, as well as for
terrorist and other illegal purposes.
In the Russian security doctrine, five main types of cyber threats are identified:
– Influence of foreign states on critical information infrastructures of the Russian
Federation (systems of power supply, water supply, transport management, etc.);
– The use of cyberspace to undermine sovereignty and destabilize the social and
political situation in Russian regions by special services of foreign countries and
their affiliated so-called social organization;
817
Chinese military and political authorities have always been aware that in the event
of a direct military confrontation with the United States, the People’s Liberation
Army of China (PLA) will not really be able to withstand this well-armed and trained
opponent from across the ocean. Therefore, the Chinese have bet on the development
of special cyber divisions and the so-called economic cyber espionage.
For example, according to estimates of authoritative experts, hacker attacks and
cyber espionage against a number of Western countries (and not just them) are objective reality at the time of publication of this book. The information acquired by such
cyber warriors is subsequently presented to the corresponding special services or
industry representatives. In response to multiple assumptions that this sphere is occupied exclusively by individual Chinese hackers, who have been somehow “offended”
by the US government, we should note that the possibility of independent hacker
activities here is almost impossible due to specifics of the local Internet legislation.
On an unrelated note, we should say that China is actually the pioneer in the
field of the Internet regulation: there is no other place in the world with such level
of censorship and closeness of the national information space (except for PRK, of
course). The country created the so-called Great Chinese Firewall. To be fair, this
system in fact helped shield China from various negative effects of the World Wide
Web, as well as from intervention attempts by various foreign hackers. Each of
the authors of this book has visited China many times over the last 20 years and
can confirm that the Internet is used in China very actively for development of all
directions of the national economics, education, and medicine; China is forming the
electronic government system and has even created its Chinese analogs of Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram.
However, as far as we can confirm based on our personal experience, it is not so
easy to become an Internet user in China. To do this, it is first necessary to register in
a police station and provide a corresponding certificate to the Internet provider. By
the way, our trusted Chinese partners warned us unofficially that there are policemen
who constantly monitor the current situation in the network in management of all
PRC providers. Any resource found to publish materials that discredit the policies
of the government and the Communist Party of China is closed without unnecessary
ceremonies with harsh consequences for the owners of the site. Perhaps, government officials of other countries shall also take this non-democratic experience into
consideration?
Now, several words shall be said about the doctrine of information security of the
Russian Federation, which is based on the assumption that the modern cyber threat
is more and more used exclusively to solve military and political tasks, as well as for
terrorist and other illegal purposes.
In the Russian security doctrine, five main types of cyber threats are identified:
– Influence of foreign states on critical information infrastructures of the Russian
Federation (systems of power supply, water supply, transport management, etc.);
– The use of cyberspace to undermine sovereignty and destabilize the social and
political situation in Russian regions by special services of foreign countries and
their affiliated so-called social organization;