Economic Warfare is alive and well in China.
FireEye has a new statement on China's military hacking of South Korean targets related to the THAAD missile system. While the Chinese have been trying to deny it, there are so many examples of harassment and intimidation that it must be the carrying out of government policy that encourages this type of thing. Slowing down tourism to the South, hacking government and commercial sites, helping the North Koreans with their cyber activities and trying to discourage any company doing business with Lotte Group are all part of China's strategy to use economic measures to discourage behavior they do not like.
This particular case is being called one of "patriotic hacking" a term that is supposed to provide cover to anyone saying this is a government program carried out by government employees. If we give any credence to this, we are doing ourselves a disservice. It is said only to give plausibility to those responsible for the direction and management of a program to stop the deployment of THAAD in the South. The Chinese think they can play this game forever, and so far have tried to prove it. We really can't believe such an absurd thing. This group has been around a long time and FireEye has been tracking them for part it. Based on their research it is probably not an independent group doing the hacked. Besides, as I have often noted, nobody hacks in China unless the government knows they are going it. They have the best monitoring and censorship system anywhere in the world. It is oppressive, but they do what they have to do to stay ahead of technology on the Internet. Most countries could never live with what they have to do to accomplish what the Chinese have done, but China doesn't really care what a burden it is to its citizens.
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