On this episode of China Uncensored,
the Chinese regime is hacking US defense contractors.
Look guys,
password1 is a bad password.
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party has hacked the US...
again.
And this time, they’ve stolen military secrets.
I’m sure everything is fine.
This particular hack happened in January and February 2018.
The Washington Post reports the Chinese Communist Party
was able to get its hands on hundreds of gigabytes of data,
on everything from strategic submarine warfare data,
to a secretive project known as Sea Dragon.
Well I guess it might as well be a Sea Monkey now.
The program began in 2012.
It was supposed to “adapt existing U.S. military technologies
to new applications,” into a “disruptive offensive capability.”
And the Pentagon has spent about 300 million dollars
on Sea Dragon since 2015.
Good to know.
The Chinese hack also stole
“secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile
for use on U.S. submarines by 2020.”
It’s unclear from the original report in the Washington Post
if the supersonic missile is part of the Sea Dragon,
or something else.
Either way,
the Chinese regime has it now.
I’m sure they’ll put it to good use.
Now there’s good news and bad news to this.
The good news is,
everything that was hacked was technically unclassified.
The bad news is that the Chinese authorities got so much
interrelated sensitive data that they could still put it together
to paint an overall picture of US submarine warfare
that could be considered classified.
For example, the Chinese Communist Party
could now know how close a Chinese sub
can get to the US navy before it’s detected.
Whereas before, they had to rely on tactical dolphins.
Now it’s not really surprising that the Chinese regime
hacked the US military.
Remember, Chinese hackers stole the designs for the F-35,
which the US spent $400 billion dollars to develop.
Chinese hackers also stole designs
for the Patriot PAC-3 missile system.
And they tried to steal plans
for the THAAD missile defense system
the US installed in South Korea.
They also got plans for, “the Black Hawk helicopter
and the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship.”
You know what, this is not looking good for the US military.
But I’m sure this is happening because Chinese military hackers
are just so advanced, right?
What’s that, Shelley?
This stuff happens because defense contractors
forget to use passwords?!
I mean, come on!
Even my grandmother knows how to use passwords.
Ok, her password is “grandma’s password”
but that’s better than nothing.
Now the name of the contractor that was hacked earlier this year
for the information on submarine warfare
was not released to the public.
And we don’t know how they were hacked in this case.
But the good news is...this is something the US military
is actively concerned about.
Here’s Admiral Philip Davidson talking about Chinese hacking
at a recent Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I believe they are stealing technology
in just about every domain,
and trying to use it to their advantage.”
“And what's the means they use to steal that technology?”
“One of the main concerns that we have, sir,
is ­cyber and penetration of the dot-com networks,
exploiting technology from our defense contractors,
in some instances.”
In this report from February, it says,
“Most detected Chinese cyber operations are focused
on defense contractors or IT and communications firms.”
And yet, despite being targets of Chinese hacking,
these defense contractors aren’t always great about...defense.
I guess that’s...ironic?
Of course it doesn’t help when the Pentagon itself screws up.
Fortunately, in response to all this coming to light,
“the Pentagon inspector general’s office said that
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had asked it to review
contractor cybersecurity issues.”
Hey, I have an idea for how to protect
top secret military files from Chinese hackers.
Since, you know, using passwords doesn’t work for us.
We can just rename our top secret military files
so they sound really boring.
Like, instead of calling this
strategic submarine warfare program
Sea Dragon,
let’s call it Sea Cucumber.
It’s just like how if you have top secret files
on your computer,
like photos of your embarrassingly extensive
beanie baby collection,
not that I have one,
you should put them in a folder
called Family Vacation Photos.
No one will ever open it.
Plus, imagine the Chinese hacker who has to brag about
stealing the operation Sea Cucumber files.
The other Chinese hackers will laugh at him forever.
Which is why this plan is foolproof.
And before we go,
it’s time for me to answer another fan question.
Evan B asks,
“Chris, how do you think China’s military would fare
in a full-scale war against another western nation?”
Well, you might think that will all the hacking,
the Chinese military could be an equal match someday.
But I doubt it.
If it ever came down to a boots-on-the-ground
World War II style conflict between China and,
let’s say, the US...
with equipment and troop size being roughly equal,
the US would for sure win.
That’s because the US military
has extensive combat experience,
and hardly anyone in the Chinese military does.
But that’s not how the Chinese military thinks about warfare.
They look at it as asymmetrical warfare.
So instead of going toe to toe with guns and airplanes,
the Chinese military would do things like:
disrupt the power grid in American cities,
disrupt our financial system,
or even poison our drinking water—
which is actually something we know the Soviets
once had a plan for.
The Communist Party would have zero qualms about
killing American civilians.
I mean, look how they treat Chinese civilians.
So a war with communist China would be very problematic.
It’s just not the knockoff F-35s I’d be worried about.
I’d like to think, though, that the US would still win—
not just with better firepower,
but by the sheer willpower of its citizens.
I’m thinking Red Dawn here.
I just hope we never find out.
And on that delightful note,
what do you think about the Chinese hacking of
US defense contractors?
And what should the US Navy
name its next secret project?
Leave your comments below.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
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