While China-linked groups continue to target cyberattacks against specific industries to steal intellectual property and against government agencies to steal political secrets, the Chinese government has broaden both its techniques and its strategies, which — along with its aggressive operations — has made the country "perhaps the world's top cyber power," threat intelligence firm IntSights states in its latest report published on August 27.
The nation's aggressive approach to using cyber operations to achieve political and national aims has set its cyber strategy apart from the more cautious and considered approaches of most other nations. Attackers linked to China have vacuumed up personally identifiable information on US and European citizens, stolen trade secrets and intellectual property, and exfiltrated classified information from government agencies, all without much political impact to the Chinese government. As China's goals shift to broaden its reach worldwide, more of its effort has focused on the suppression of foreign and domestic opponents that are critical of the Chinese Communist Party, according to IntSights' "Dark Side of China: The Evolution of a Global Cyber Power" report.
The US government has already designated China as the nation's top cyber adversary. And China will only increase its focus on cyber, says Etay Maor, cybersecurity expert and chief security officer at IntSights. China's last Five-Year Plan, published in 2016, stated that the government would direct the country's manufacturing toward more innovative products from low-value goods — an obvious motivation for the country's continued attacks, he says.
"When it comes to China, cyber is not a tactical weapon ..
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