The Thousand Grains of Sand In The Electronic Age: China’s Cyber Espionage Capabilities Outstripping Ours

Via Krypt3ia Blog -

Advanced Persistent Threats Are Not New: 先进的威胁不是持久性的新功能：

The news cycle has been abuzz again as to how China is capable of beating the pants off of us in the hacking sphere and that we should be worried. I say, this is not news in any way and those of you who read this blog should already know this fact. For those of you who are not so familiar with the DoD space, the knowledge of what has been called APT has been around for quite some time. In fact, the term was coined in 2006 by the Air Force, but the attack structure of how the Chinese and other state actors had been using similar tactics on DoD infrastructure goes back to the 90′s (Moonlight Maze, Titan Rain)

So, hello world outside of the insular DoD and Infosec sphere, They have been around quite a while. In fact, one could make the extension that the Chinese line of thought called “The Thousand Grains of Sand” has been around far longer and has been used as their model of espionage for a very long time. Obviously the connections can also be made to Sun Tzu and his precepts on warfare, which, just happen to involve a fair amount of espionage as the means to winning a war. It is little surprise to anyone who knows the Chinese mind and the teachings of Sun Tzu, that China would apply these same precepts to another battle space (cyberspace) the fifth domain as the US military calls it now.

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Such a good read. Krypt3ia attempts to outline how the APT espionage model fits into the wider geopolitical landscape and the concept of "soft power". In short, APT is just one variable in the overall algebra.

Jeffery Carr's Play on the Point of Symmetry
http://issuu.com/jeffreycarr/docs/play_on_the_point_of_symmetry

A short paper describing how the requirements of Multi-National Corporations become a tactical advantage for State-run cyber operations.

Huawei's Chairwoman Worked For China's Ministry of Public Security
http://jeffreycarr.blogspot.com/2011/04/huaweis-chairwoman-worked-for-chinese.html

Huawei's 2010 annual report included, for the first time, information about its Board of Directors in an apparent bid to demonstrate increased transparency into its operations. The bio for its Chairwoman Sun Yafang (CEO Ren ZhengFei's daughter) failed to mention that she once worked for the Ministry of Public Security, which is the national law enforcement agency for the Peoples Republic of China.