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UPDATED: January 12, 2015 NO. 3 JANUARY 15, 2015
Is a Cyberwar Coming?
The alleged Sony hacking warns of the grave consequences of cyberwarfare
By Li Yan
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How can one distinguish between a cyberattack and cyberwar? According to a popular definition in the academic community, a cyberattack can constitute a cyberwar when it is part of a real military conflict or conforms to particular standards given no physical war happening. Though views on the particular standards differ, the degree of damage is universally agreed upon as primary judgment criteria. Military experts have shown unanimous concern over the much more disastrous consequences cyberattacks could bring to humankind than traditional wars given the fragility of cyberspace and its close link with people's lives--for instance, the possible nuclear disasters caused by cyberattacks.

Currently, the international community has reached a consensus to keep alert and avoid setting the cyberwar threshold too low. Politically, war represents the most severe level of confrontation between rivals. A miscalculation could go against the peace and stability of cyberspace and the present world. People should never lightly define an event as a cyberwar, and the recent case between North Korea and the United States should not be regarded as a herald of "the coming of a cyberwar era."

After the Sony Pictures cyberattack, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, accused China of involvement in the attack but failed to present any evidence to support the claims.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying refuted Graham's accusation, saying that China never allows any foreign country or individual to carry out cyberattacks from Chinese soil or by using Chinese facilities.

While China benefits greatly from the rapid development of information technology, it is also facing a growing number of online threats from overseas. It has now become one of the biggest victims of cyberattacks in the world. The China Internet Development Report 2014 shows that "backdoors" created overseas hacked about 61,000 websites on the Chinese mainland in 2013, up 62.1 percent from 2012. A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication and securing illegal remote access to a computer. Over 10.9 million computers on the China mainland were controlled by overseas servers. The United States was home to 30.2 percent of these servers.

To safeguard cyberspace, the Chinese Government has made great efforts to promote the global Internet interconnectivity and shared governance. During the First World Internet Conference held in China last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the international community to jointly build a cyberspace of peace, security, openness and cooperation, as well as an international Internet governance system of multilateralism, democracy and transparency.

Besides promoting global Internet governance, the biggest threat for the peace and stability of the current cyberspace is not cyberwars but the preparation for such wars. Though a true cyberwar has not yet erupted, some countries have already prepared for such an event. The United States, particularly, has continued to update its cyberspace strategy or action plans, enlarge its cyber army, increase input on cyber armament development and conduct a variety of joint cyberwar military drills. The trend of cyberspace militarization has further increased the risk of incidents. To the point, besides enhancing international cooperation and building a mutual trust mechanism, the international community should also seriously manage and control cyberspace militarization, to truly safeguard the peace and stability of the virtual world.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of Information and Social Development Studies under the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations

Email us at: yanwei@bjreview.com

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