Inside Cyber Warfare - Jeffrey Carr [105]
Use backdoors or Trojan worms when attacking a network.
Stratagem #10: “Hide a knife behind a smile”
This stratagem advises “Charm and ingratiate yourself with your enemy until you have gained his trust. Then move against him.”
This could describe phishing schemes or other social engineering attacks.
Stratagem #15: “Lure the tiger out of the mountain”
This stratagem advises “Hold out baits to entice the enemy.”
This refers to luring an opponent from a position of strength, such as being protected by a firewall and updated anti-virus program, to a position of weakness or vulnerability. One way to accomplish this is with the adoption of social engineering techniques to get the target to accept a fake email as genuine and open a compromised attachment or click on an infected link.
Stratagem #17: “Tossing out a brick to get a Jade gem”
This stratagem advises “Bait someone by making him believe that he gains something and obtain something valuable from him in return.”
This could equate to a social engineering technique used to get the target to click on a link or visit a website where information will be covertly collected without his knowledge.
Stratagem #30: “The honey trap”
This stratagem advises “Send your enemy beautiful women to cause discord within his camp.”
In contemporary computer parlance, this could refer to a honey pot, which lures visitors to a rigged site that collects information about them.
The 36 stratagems, like The Art of War, still plays a large role in shaping Beijing’s military strategy. Western policymakers should be familiar with both historical documents if they wish to understand the strategy underpinning the Chinese threat landscape.
US Military Doctrine
The US armed forces have produced more of a paper trail on how cyber warfare is to be conducted than any other nation. In fact, as has been mentioned earlier in this chapter, the PRC and to some extent the Russian Federation have based their own doctrine on what has been published in the following manuals:
DOD Directive No. 3600.1, Information Operations. October 2001
DOD Information Operations Roadmap. October 30, 2003
JP 3-13 Information Operations. February 13, 2006
The question of who controls the US cyber warfare mission has been a hotly contested issue over the past several years. The US Air Force, Army, and Navy all have their own cyber operations, but overall command for conducting CNO has been assigned to the US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), and the National Security Agency (NSA) has the mission of defending all US military networks.
The connection between the NSA and USSTRATCOM occurs at the Joint Functional Component Command (JFCC) level, known as the Joint Functional Component Command—Network Warfare, whose commander is also the director of the NSA. What follows is the official definition of Network Warfare, as written in Joint Publication 3.13:
[T]he employment of Computer Network Operations (CNO) with the intent of denying adversaries the effective use of their computers, information systems, and networks, while ensuring the effective use of our own computers, information systems, and networks. These operations include Computer Network Attack (CNA), Computer Network Exploitation (CNE), and Computer Network Defense (CND).
Its important to note that USSTRATCOM is not the sole command authority in this complex arena. JP3.13 goes on to state that:
CDRUSSTRATCOM’s specific authority and responsibility to coordinate IO (Information Operations) across AOR and functional boundaries does not diminish the imperative for the other combatant commanders to coordinate, integrate, plan, execute, and deploy IO. These efforts may be directed at achieving national or military objectives incorporated in TSCPs (Theater Security Cooperation Programs), shaping the operational environment for potential employment during periods of