Washington's cyber activities call for watchful eyes

This is an editorial from China Daily.

In May, the United States' National Security Agency published a report, technically supported by Microsoft, claiming a cyberattack orchestrated by China had targeted the critical infrastructure of Guam, a strategically important US territory in the Pacific.

According to Microsoft and the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing group, the attackers breached computer networks on the Pacific island used for both civilian and military purposes.

This is part of a collective disinformation operation being conducted by the "Five Eyes" Anglo-Saxon countries for geopolitical purposes.

In response to the allegation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that it was neither the first nor the last time they would fabricate such an attack. She was right, as they continue to repeat the same lie.

A recently released Microsoft Threat Intelligence report claims that the US defense industrial base on Guam is one of the most frequent targets of Chinese cyberattacks, particularly the satellite communications and telecommunications entities housed there.

The supposedly ballooning threat to Guam drew a bipartisan group of US House of Representatives members, including the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, to Guam this summer. And this month, House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman visited the island claiming it is on the front line of the fight against cyber threats.

Guam naturally is making the most of being the focus of attention.

In December 2022, NSA Deputy Director Rob Joyce said sharing declassified information with partners who can then take action on it would be a "game changer". With this in mind, the US Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs awarded $500,000 to Guam's Office of Technology to create a cyber resilience project in late July. This provides a clue into the Joe Biden Administration's security strategy, namely to pay anybody that claims to be a "victim" of attacks from China.

Esther Aguigui, Guam's homeland security adviser, said the government has nearly completed a cyber security strategy to manage cyber risks from cyber criminals and nation states alike. If Guam wants to defend itself against genuine cyberattacks, it would do better to look at shoring up its defenses against the scattergun cyber activities of the US.

The National Defense Authorization Act amended Title 10 of the United States Code, which outlines the role of the US military, to expand the authority of the US Cyber Command to conduct traditional military activities in cyberspace and in nonhostile environments, or outside of hostile areas. This expansion makes it easier for the Cyber Command to conduct cyber operations because it has eliminated interdepartmental friction.

It is the cyber activities of the US that bear keeping a watchful eye on.