Hacking U.S. Secrets, China Pushes for Drones

[Lee J <lee () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/world/asia/hacking-us-secrets-china-pushes-for-drones.html?_r=1&;

BEIJING — For almost two years, hackers based in Shanghai went after one
foreign defense contractor after another, at least 20 in all. Their target,
according to an American cybersecurity company that monitored the attacks,
was the technology behind the United States’ clear lead in military drones.

“I believe this is the largest campaign we’ve seen that has been focused on
drone technology,” said Darien Kindlund, manager of threat intelligence at
the company, FireEye, based in California. “It seems to align pretty well
with the focus of the Chinese government to build up their own drone
technology capabilities.”

The hacking operation, conducted by a group called “Comment Crew,” was one
of the most recent signs of the ambitions of China’s drone development
program. The government and military are striving to put China at the
forefront of drone manufacturing, for their own use and for export, and
have made an all-out push to gather domestic and international technology
to support the program.

Foreign Ministry officials have said China does not sanction hacking, and
is itself a victim, but another American cybersecurity company has tracked
members of Comment Crew to a building of the People’s Liberation Army
outside Shanghai.

China is now dispatching its own drones into potential combat arenas. Every
major arms manufacturer in China has a research center devoted to drones,
according to Chinese and foreign military analysts. Those companies have
shown off dozens of models to potential foreign buyers at international air
shows.

Chinese officials this month sent a drone near disputed islands
administered by Japan; debated using a weaponized drone last year to kill a
criminal suspect in Myanmar; and sold homemade drones resembling the
Predator, an American model, to other countries for less than a million
dollars each. Meanwhile, online photographs reveal a stealth combat drone,
the Lijian, or Stealth Sword, in a runway test in May.

Military analysts say China has long tried to replicate foreign drone
designs. Some Chinese drones appearing at recent air shows have closely
resembled foreign ones. Ian M. Easton, a military analyst at the Project
2049 Institute in Virginia, said cyberespionage was one tool in an
extensive effort over years to purchase or develop drones domestically
using all available technology, foreign and domestic.

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