The Pentagon recently issued the annual report to Congress regarding recent Chinese military developments. In the 83 page report, the Pentagon accuses China of using computer hacking to spy on United States advanced technology. Although Beijing denies this vehemently, recent coordinated cyber-attacks on U.S. interests and several private companies were traced to a PLA (People’s Liberated Army) building in China.

Chief amongst the targets for Chinese hackers are the US pilotless drone program and the stealth fighter and an aircraft carrier fleet. The Pentagon cites concerns beyond that of the stolen technology being syphoned off by the communist nation. The skills necessary for hacking into high level US Government computer networks and private enterprise networks of CBS, the New York Times are the same skill set necessary to conduct serious DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service attacks on the internet.

Recent DDoS attacks have shut down some sites, and one attack in particular virtually slowed the internet service to several sites down to a crawl. The Pentegon’s concern is that the size and nature of these attacks could shut down automated internet based communications stalling everything from access to emails to bank services. Due to the sheer volume of commerce that takes place online on a daily basis, a DDoS on a large enough scale could make the use of inter-bank transfers impossible. Bank and Debit cards would become unusable and that would affect consumers world-wide.

It is the first time that an official US Government report makes the accusation against the Chinese, but it is something that has been known for years. The recent buildup of Chinese military and defense reflects a resurgence in technology previously unavailable to them. 2012 marked the second test of China’s new stealth fighter aircraft. Before the recent espionage efforts conducted, it was estimated that it would be 2018 before China even had one stealth fighter that was operational. It was also the year that China’s retrofitted Soviet aircraft carrier successfully launched an aircraft.

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