Walking in the Shadow of Sino-American Cyber Warfare: A Period of Divergent Offensive Ideas (Late 20th Century to Early 21st Century)

Walking in the Shadow of Sino-American Cyber Warfare: A Period of Divergent Offensive Ideas (Late 20th Century to Early 21st Century)

From the end of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, China and the United States formed very different attack ideologies in the rapidly expanding cyberspace. In the early days of the Internet, China's educational infrastructure and specialized institutions were underdeveloped, and young people, known as "black customers," played a leading role in quantitative attacks that targeted large numbers of vulnerable sites. While the nation's IT development could not keep up, trial-and-error techniques and the participation of large numbers of people became weapons, and power attacks that pushed down a group of people at once became typical.

The U.S., on the other hand, excelled at precise and selective point attacks, supported by research on information warfare accumulated since the Cold War and a long-term national strategy centered on the NSA. A surgical attack ideology that precisely exploited only the necessary areas was fostered by a precise technical system that included infiltrating specific sectors, uncovering zero-day vulnerabilities, and quietly monitoring until the objective was achieved. Stuxnet and other operations symbolize the maturation of this ideology.

The difference between the two was not simply a difference in technological capabilities, but was born of a disconnect between national policy and the educational environment. China, in the midst of rapid growth and turmoil, was more likely to function with quantitative attacks, while the U.S. moved toward precision attacks due to its organized research system. Thus, cyber warfare between China and the U.S. has been etched in history as two shadows with fundamentally different ideologies, yet existing in the same space.