China Claims US has ‘Cyberarmy’ and ‘Hacker Brigade’

This was written by Michael W. Cheek on Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 12:49.

Since the cyber attacks against Google earlier this month, China and the US have engaged in a ‘war of words’ over cyberspace policy. Over the weekend, China accused the US of conducting cyber warfare.

The People’s Daily, a Chinese government run newspaper, said in an editorial “The US was the first country in the world to introduce the concept of cyberwar; it has introduced and developed a new kind of army, a cyberarmy, and even set up a hacker brigade. US intelligence agencies can, through technical means, fully monitor, follow and erase online information harmful to the US’ national interest. It is really ridiculous that under such circumstances, it demands other countries to allow the free flow of information on the net.”

The US government and private analysts often cite China as a major player in cyber incidents, particularly involving the probing of US networks. However, this is a rare occasion in which the Chinese have accused the US of doing the same.

The Chinese also accused the US have sparking unrest in Iran claiming “That was a cyberwar initiated by the US, where on Youtube and Twitter, it spread rumours, created splits, provoked and sowed discord between the supporters of the conservative and the reformist factions, engaged in veiled infiltration and instigation which led to large-scale bloody conflict in Iran.”

The US is working to stand-up a Cyber Command to help defend DoD networks and President Obama named a cyber coordinator back in December.