4/15/16, 4:17 PMCyber Security from China’s Perspective – What the Experts Say – Boston Global Forum

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CYBER SECURITY FROM CHINA’S PERSPECTIVE – WHAT THE EXPERTS SAYCYBER SECURITY FROM CHINA’S PERSPECTIVE – WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

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(12th Feb 2016) Dick Pirozzolo – Managing Director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations shared his view about how China thinks aboutcyber-security. Dick Pirozzolo serves on the editorial board of Boston Global Forum and is co-author, with Michael Morris, of a forthcomingnovel that takes place in Vietnam during April of 1975.

U.S. OFFICIALLY LAUNCHESU.S. OFFICIALLY LAUNCHESCYBERWAR ON ISLAMIC STATECYBERWAR ON ISLAMIC STATE

LINKS TO CHINESE OFFICIALS INLINKS TO CHINESE OFFICIALS INOFFSHORE TAX-HAVENOFFSHORE TAX-HAVENDOCUMENT DROPDOCUMENT DROP

FIGHT OVER DATA PRIVACY MAYFIGHT OVER DATA PRIVACY MAYBE JUST STARTINGBE JUST STARTING

FBI PUTS 2 SYRIAN HACKERS ONFBI PUTS 2 SYRIAN HACKERS ONA MOST-WANTED LISTA MOST-WANTED LIST

CHINESE CYBER-ATTACKS ONCHINESE CYBER-ATTACKS ONU.S. CONTINUE UNABATEDU.S. CONTINUE UNABATED

APPLE HYPOCRITICAL IN BATTLEAPPLE HYPOCRITICAL IN BATTLEWITH FBI OVER IPHONE?WITH FBI OVER IPHONE?

APPLE SHOULD GIVE ACCESS TOAPPLE SHOULD GIVE ACCESS TOTERRORIST’S IPHONETERRORIST’S IPHONE

DNI: CHINA CONTINUES CYBERDNI: CHINA CONTINUES CYBERESPIONAGEESPIONAGE

A FIGHT OVER ADS,A FIGHT OVER ADS, ENCRYPTION AND LAW ENCRYPTION AND LAWENFORCEMENTENFORCEMENT

OBAMA PLEADS FOROBAMA PLEADS FORCOOPERATION ON SMARTPHONECOOPERATION ON SMARTPHONE

4/15/16, 4:17 PMCyber Security from China’s Perspective – What the Experts Say – Boston Global Forum

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Read his view below

Why China hacks may be more in the Communist Party’s DNA and view of the Internet than anything else, according to Sharon Hom,executive director of Human Rights in China, a Chinese Non-Government Organization. Hom spoke during a recent panel discussionorganized by the Christian Science Monitor in Boston.

Hom explained, “While in the US and most of the world, citizens regard the Internet as a big open international and transparentcommunication phenomenon,

the Communist Party wants control of society and information. Though it is not a linear path from censorship and control to hacking the Internet,the Party needs to manage expression online.” In China, “Cyber security means security of the Party.”

The event was organized, in part, to promote the Monitor’s online section Passcode which it bills as a field guide to security and privacy.

When it comes to establishing international norms for Internet behavior that would presumably reduce hacking, Hom is not optimistic pointingout that whenever norms come up, China, Iran, Russia, Pakistan and other bad actors, unite to pose obstacles in a, “race to the bottom.”

In sharp contrast to these nations, Boston Global Forum has recognized Japan, host of the next G7 meeting in March, for supportinginternational norms. Commenting on the Forum’s international ethics code of conduct, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Boston-basedthink tank members: “Japan will continue to cooperate closely with the US and other partners … while playing a leading role in achieving thepeace and stability of the international community.”

In addition to Japan and the US, G7 nations include Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy.

Panelist Adam Segal added, that the Chinese government sees the Internet from the perspective of “cyber sovereignty and as an entity that thegovernment can develop as it sees fit.”

Segal, director of the Digital Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations emphasized that a big part of China’s incentive tohack other nation’s computers is to obtain intellectual property from foreign companies. Segal told attendees, “China does not want to be thefactory of the world and is worried about the future of technology.” For example, “While China probably manufacturers all the DVD playerssold in the world, the head that reads the disc is proprietary and owned by companies in Japan.”

Though China’s theft of 22 million personnel records from the Federal Office of Personnel Management is well known, private companies havebeen closed mouthed about such intrusions until Google announced, “We’ve been hacked along with 30 other companies,” according toSegal. Segal also reported on a hack of Boeing’s computer’s a few years ago in his cover article titled: Why China Hacks the World, in theFebruary 1, 2016 edition of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly.

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4/15/16, 4:17 PMCyber Security from China’s Perspective – What the Experts Say – Boston Global Forum

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JOHN SAVAGE Live on Feb 22: John Savage’s talk on Strategies for Combating Cyber-Terrorism

In addition to stealing intellectual property to gain technological advantage, China is also engaged in what Segal called the world’s oldestprofession “espionage” and strives to obtain secrets about the F22 and F35 fighter jets and other weapon systems. China also uses hacking asa form of external censorship by “intimidating reporters, “ who write articles unfavorable to this nation of 1.4 Billion.

“Is there bad hacking and good hacking?” asked moderator Mike Farrell, editor of the Monitor’s Passcode publication. Panelists agreed thatgovernment-to-government spying is considered acceptable, but for a government to hack into another country’s businesses steal the informationand pass it to companies inside its own borders is outside any acceptable norm.

Michael Sulmeyer, director of the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, pointed out that the current state ofcyber security “is like leaving a bag money on your front lawn and being stunned to learn that someone stole it during the night. At least makeharder. Make them work. Make sure it’s not the jayvee team but that the varsity team is needed hack into your systems.”

While it might be comforting to think about like-kind retaliation, it is not always possible. Segal explained relationships between the US andChina are complex and come with competing values, “Fifty percent of Apple’s revenue comes from China. One of the worlds biggesttechnology companies is not likely to want heavy-handed retaliation.”

Though Hom devotes much of her time to combatting cyber hacking and theft, she says people in her office continue to ignore fundamentalsecurity measures and continue to, “stick Post-it notes to their computers containing their passwords, because they have so many to remember.”

“Cyber defenses though are a stopgap. The real solution is more evolutionary,” says Hom and will come about, ‘When governments like Chinastop using the Internet as a tool of social engineering.”

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