The People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues to build cyberwarfare units and develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems as part of its information-warfare strategy, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) warned in a report released on Friday.
"The PLA has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks," the annual DOD report on China's military warned. At the same, Chinese armed forces are developing ways to protect its own systems from an enemy attack, it said, echoing similar warnings made in previous years.
These capabilities are part of China's ongoing military modernization efforts, which have seen the country add dozens of high-tech fighters and ballistic missiles to its arsenal. China isn't alone in building the capability to attack an enemy's computer systems. The U.S. and other countries have developed similar abilities.
The PLA's virus-writing efforts have been underway for years, reflecting the importance that China apparently attaches to information warfare. As early as 2000, the DOD warned, "China has the capability to penetrate poorly protected U.S. computer systems and potentially could use CNA [computer network attacks] to attack specific U.S. civilian and military infrastructures."
In recent years, the PLA has begun training more seriously for computer attacks, including them as part of larger military exercises in 2005.
The main focus of China's military modernization efforts are Taiwan, an island nation that China views as a renegade province. The two separated in 1949 after a civil war between the Communist and Nationalist armies, with the Nationalist forces retreating to Taiwan. China has long threatened to attack Taiwan if the island formally declares independence, and the expansion of China's military capabilities are largely geared towards a possible attack against Taiwan.
"A limited military campaign could include computer network attacks against Taiwan’s political, military, and economic infrastructure to undermine the Taiwan population’s confidence in its leadership," the report said.
But the U.S., which would likely intervene in a Chinese attack on Taiwan, is also a potential target, it said.
Awareness
Being totally aware of your surroundings at all times is most important when it comes to personal safety and personal security, and this is not only so in unfamiliar ground.
The example of a home invasion robbery that happened not so long ago somewhere in the United States could save as a reminder here that we must be most vigilant on our own turf. The father of the family had stepped outside the door (it was not mentioned, as far as I can remember whether this was the front door or the back) for a smoke during the night and upon going back in failed to do any kind of safety check and he was followed in by two men with guns who then subjected the family including children to a ordeal lasting somewhat of an hour while ransacking the house.
Your home security is only as good as you. You must always remember that. The same applies to your personal security.
Even the best home alarms, unless they happen to be those with panic buttons (fine if you can get to one of them) and constant monitoring, do not help if you do not ensure that you do not have uninvited guests right behind you when you step inside of your home.
Nothing, not even the best technology, can ever substitute for your own vigilance.
The same also applies when you step out of your home, your personal fortress, into the wide open world out there. Have a way of ensuring visually, and if you can do and afford electronic measures so much the better, that the coast is clear, that no possible assailant or burglar, wishing to gain entry the easy way into your home by pushing you back inside, is lurking around.
You are more in danger, in my view, in surroundings that are familiar to you, such as your “home turf”, what the villains in England would call “manor”, than in a strange neighborhood or even town or country. Why is that? Because on your home manor, th area that you move in every day you are more relaxed, as a rule, and your personal security perimeter is closer and you let people come closer to you than that would be the case if you were moving thru an area unfamiliar to you. On our home patch we very often let our guard down and don't perceive the threats that may be lurking as quickly as we would in other instances. But this guard must not slip. Towards people you know personally and with whom you are on friendly terms even if as acquaintances only the guard can be lowered but anyone in your own area that you do not know must be perceived as a potential threat. Vigilance in your own garden, on your landing, if you live in an apartment, in your own roads, has to be as acute and sharp as in unfamiliar territory.
Always watch your six o'clock!, as they say. Make it a habit to look behind you every so often, develop good peripheral vision and learn to be totally aware of your surroundings at all times.
I have personally made it to a habit to come to a semi-stop and to turn around rather sharp and abruptly frequently, though in an unpredictable manner and pattern, to ensure than I am not being followed, stalked and targeted, and that not only in unfamiliar surroundings but even in places that I know and where I live. I probably do this more so when it is getting darker or in the mornings before it is fully light but I also do do that rather as a norm during daylight hours.
Too many people who do become victims of a crime are not aware (enough) of their surroundings and especially nowadays are rather distracted, mostly by the fact that they have earphones on listening to their MP3 players, which are often turned up way too loud with the high volume making them deaf to their surroundings, or are chatting on the cell phones. Not only are those people deaf to their surroundings but they are in fact most of the time entirely oblivious to what is going on around them and move, it seems, entirely in a loittle world of their own. Anyone behaving like that might as well be wearing a sign saying “target” on their back.
© M V Smith, May 2007
The example of a home invasion robbery that happened not so long ago somewhere in the United States could save as a reminder here that we must be most vigilant on our own turf. The father of the family had stepped outside the door (it was not mentioned, as far as I can remember whether this was the front door or the back) for a smoke during the night and upon going back in failed to do any kind of safety check and he was followed in by two men with guns who then subjected the family including children to a ordeal lasting somewhat of an hour while ransacking the house.
Your home security is only as good as you. You must always remember that. The same applies to your personal security.
Even the best home alarms, unless they happen to be those with panic buttons (fine if you can get to one of them) and constant monitoring, do not help if you do not ensure that you do not have uninvited guests right behind you when you step inside of your home.
Nothing, not even the best technology, can ever substitute for your own vigilance.
The same also applies when you step out of your home, your personal fortress, into the wide open world out there. Have a way of ensuring visually, and if you can do and afford electronic measures so much the better, that the coast is clear, that no possible assailant or burglar, wishing to gain entry the easy way into your home by pushing you back inside, is lurking around.
You are more in danger, in my view, in surroundings that are familiar to you, such as your “home turf”, what the villains in England would call “manor”, than in a strange neighborhood or even town or country. Why is that? Because on your home manor, th area that you move in every day you are more relaxed, as a rule, and your personal security perimeter is closer and you let people come closer to you than that would be the case if you were moving thru an area unfamiliar to you. On our home patch we very often let our guard down and don't perceive the threats that may be lurking as quickly as we would in other instances. But this guard must not slip. Towards people you know personally and with whom you are on friendly terms even if as acquaintances only the guard can be lowered but anyone in your own area that you do not know must be perceived as a potential threat. Vigilance in your own garden, on your landing, if you live in an apartment, in your own roads, has to be as acute and sharp as in unfamiliar territory.
Always watch your six o'clock!, as they say. Make it a habit to look behind you every so often, develop good peripheral vision and learn to be totally aware of your surroundings at all times.
I have personally made it to a habit to come to a semi-stop and to turn around rather sharp and abruptly frequently, though in an unpredictable manner and pattern, to ensure than I am not being followed, stalked and targeted, and that not only in unfamiliar surroundings but even in places that I know and where I live. I probably do this more so when it is getting darker or in the mornings before it is fully light but I also do do that rather as a norm during daylight hours.
Too many people who do become victims of a crime are not aware (enough) of their surroundings and especially nowadays are rather distracted, mostly by the fact that they have earphones on listening to their MP3 players, which are often turned up way too loud with the high volume making them deaf to their surroundings, or are chatting on the cell phones. Not only are those people deaf to their surroundings but they are in fact most of the time entirely oblivious to what is going on around them and move, it seems, entirely in a loittle world of their own. Anyone behaving like that might as well be wearing a sign saying “target” on their back.
Do not make yourself a victim.
Be aware of what is going on around you at all times.
Be aware of what is going on around you at all times.
© M V Smith, May 2007
China confirms bird flu outbreak
China has confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in the central province of Hunan, state media has reported.
More than 11,000 poultry died of the virus in Shijiping village near Yiyang city, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Some 53,000 birds have since been culled and officials say that the outbreak is now under control.
China's last reported case was in March, when chickens died at a poultry market near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
There were no reports of human infection in the latest outbreak.
A total of 15 people have died in China from the H5N1 virus and millions of birds have been culled.
Officials are working to vaccinate billions of domestic poultry by the end of May in preparation for the northward migration of wild birds in the summer, Xinhua news agency has said.
Since the H5N1 virus emerged in South East Asia in late 2003, it has claimed more than 180 lives around the world. Indonesia has been hardest hit, with more than 70 deaths.
Scientists fear the virus could mutate to a form which could be easily passed from human to human, triggering a pandemic and potentially putting millions of lives at risk.
Recognizing Hidden Weapons - Key Knife
Recognizing Hidden Weapons – Part II
This is, as you can see, Part II of the little series of articles in which I want to show you, the reader, how many items (and I am sure I will not be able to cover them all) that could be weapons concealed in one way or other.
While a person carrying one of those may not, necessarily, be carrying it with a criminal intent and may not be a terrorist but what I would like to point out is how easy it is for them to be overlooked.
Key Knife
The picture above shows a “key knife” that was given away by a company that produces machinery for the security printing industry and general print industry. While, obviously, there is again nothing wrong such a knife per se as it is only a small pen knife the fact is that if this kind of knife (and there are a variety of different kinds and styles about) is attached to a keyring together with a bunch of keys it will, to the first and second glance, and possibly even to the trained eye appear as nothing more than yet another key on that particular bunch (the picture below shows the same knife in the open position).
As I said in the last article, we must always expect the unexpected in this field, and have our wits about us. Not everything is what it looks like at first and even second glance. If you feel suspicion, check.
© M V Smith, May 2007
This is, as you can see, Part II of the little series of articles in which I want to show you, the reader, how many items (and I am sure I will not be able to cover them all) that could be weapons concealed in one way or other.
While a person carrying one of those may not, necessarily, be carrying it with a criminal intent and may not be a terrorist but what I would like to point out is how easy it is for them to be overlooked.
Key Knife
The picture above shows a “key knife” that was given away by a company that produces machinery for the security printing industry and general print industry. While, obviously, there is again nothing wrong such a knife per se as it is only a small pen knife the fact is that if this kind of knife (and there are a variety of different kinds and styles about) is attached to a keyring together with a bunch of keys it will, to the first and second glance, and possibly even to the trained eye appear as nothing more than yet another key on that particular bunch (the picture below shows the same knife in the open position).
As I said in the last article, we must always expect the unexpected in this field, and have our wits about us. Not everything is what it looks like at first and even second glance. If you feel suspicion, check.
© M V Smith, May 2007
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