Cyber Strikes Like Nuclear Bombs, Says Chinese General

Chinese official calls for better Internet security, denies reports that China-affiliated attackers are targeting Western competitors.

Anonymous: 10 Things We Have Learned In 2013 (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
A leading Chinese military officer Monday warned that a failure of Internet security could have damaging consequences for all big cyber countries.
If the security of the Internet cannot be guaranteed, then ... results may be as serious as a nuclear bomb, said Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of staff of the Peoples Liberation Army, in a joint press conference with his U.S. counterpart, Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a
statement
released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dempsey is in China to conduct negotiations on a number of fronts, including cybersecurity,
North Korea
, terrorism and disaster relief -- in the wake of an
earthquake Sunday in Sichuan Province
that left an estimated 188 people dead and 11,500 injured, and for which the Chinese military has been leading the disaster response.
[ Is China behind hacks? Read
China Denies U.S. Hacking Accusations: 6 Facts
. ]
On the cybersecurity front, Fang during the press briefing denied reports that a Chinese military unit has been responsible for
launching cyberespionage operations
and
advanced persistent threat attacks
against Western competitors.
None of these activities is tolerated here in China, he said, emphasizing that like the United States, China is itself a victim of online attacks,
reported

The Wall Street Journal
. Furthermore, he noted the
difficulty of accurately tracing back attacks
to their true origin.
In an apparent first, however, the Chinese military official agreed to discuss the issue of cybersecurity in further high-level government talks. Gen. Dempsey and I have already talked about the importance of maintaining cybersecurity, Fang said. I believe it is important that we check out the idea that we should jointly work on this issue, he said.
Fangs remarks came the same day that Verizon released its annual
Data Breach Investigations Report
(DBIR). That report -- based on information provided by Verizon and the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, as well as other national CERTs, the U.S. Secret Service and law enforcement agencies in Europe -- counted 621 confirmed data breaches, 47,000 reported security incidents and 44 million compromised records in 2012.
State-affiliated actors tied to China are the biggest mover in 2012, said the report. Their efforts to steal IP [intellectual property] comprise about one-fifth of all breaches in this [2012] data set. The report noted that a whopping 96% of espionage cases were attributed to threat actors in China.
State espionage and IP theft is more prevalent than ever, said Jay Jacobs, a senior analyst for the RISK Team at Verizon, speaking by phone.

Last News
▸ ArcSight prepares for future at user conference post HP acquisition. ◂ Discovered: 07/01/2025 Category: security	▸ Samsung Epic 4G: First To Use Media Hub ◂ Discovered: 07/01/2025 Category: security	▸ Many third-party software fails security tests ◂ Discovered: 07/01/2025 Category: security

**Cyber Security Categories**
Google Dorks Database	Exploits Vulnerability	Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List

Tools/Apps

News/Aarticles

Phishing Database

Deepfake Detection

Trends/Statistics & Live Infos

Tags:
Cyber Strikes Like Nuclear Bombs, Says Chinese General