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Thread: The Dog That Didn’t Bark: Why No China-Japan Hacking War Over Diaoyutai/Senkaku (Yet)?

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[quote=SEVEN11,477117]Accourding to HongKong official media just now, Chinese hackers are beginning launching attack...

Website defacement played a large part of the standoff between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal/Huangyan Island. From April 20 until May 18 hackers on both sides traded blows, posting messages claiming sovereignty over the disputed islands and taunting the other side. Chinese hackers attacked the websites of the Department of Budget and Management and the University of Philippines, and posted the Chinese flag on the Philippines News Agency site; Filipino hackers responded with attacks on government sites and the message: “You may continue bullying our country’s waters but we will not tolerate you from intimidating our own cyber shores.” After three Chinese surveillance ships cut the exploration cables belonging to a Vietnamese ship on May 26, Chinese and Vietnamese hackers defaced and brought down thousands of websites.

China’s most recent territorial flare up with Japan over the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands has involved confrontations at sea, heated rhetoric, and amphibious landings by nationalist activists, but notably missing is widespread website defacement, with only the website of the National Nara Museum attacked. Chinese hackers have talked about possible targets, listing IP addresses and email addresses, but there has been no reported follow up. Given what happened with the Philippines and Vietnam, one would have expected a great deal more activity. So what’s happening?

Two possible explanations. Perhaps Japanese and Chinese hackers have reached a point where they view website defacement as ineffective against the other side and are relying on more sophisticated attacks to cause real damage. Though I am not too convinced of the strength of this argument, in September of 2010 members of the hacking group the Chinese Honkers Union argued against “pointless attacks” and instead suggested that hackers concentrate on real attacks that “fatally damage the enemy’s network or gain access to its sensitive information,” adding that “any attack will be executed silently.”

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