David Vallance
China’s military modernisation since the start of the twenty-first century has been nothing short of astonishing. In little over three decades, it has built thousands of modern combat aircraft, created a fearsome arsenal of missiles, and fielded the world’s largest navy, radically changing Australia’s strategic circumstances. But amid all the discussion of air power, rocketry, and maritime power, there is a more silent but nonetheless critical element of its modernisation: China’s cyberwarfare capabilities.
In a networked world where everything from banking to missile telemetry is supported by cyberspace, capability in this domain is a critical enabler for all other kinds of national power. Moreover, cyber operations are the only kinds of attacks from which Australia’s geography provides no natural defence. China’s cyber capabilities are sophisticated and bolstered by an interesting combination of state-employed hackers and civilian researchers. The former are contracted by the government. The latter openly participate in international “bug bounty” programs (which reward ethical hackers for finding and reporting security vulnerabilities in an organisation's systems) and identify “zero-day vulnerabilities” for foreign companies including Google and Microsoft.
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