March 8, 2011: Network security experts throughout the West are calling the increasing number of attacks on corporate and government computer systems as Operation "Night Dragon," and describe it as a major Chinese effort to grab as much valuable information as they can before Western defenses get stronger. China is the likely culprit because so many of the operations have been traced back to China, many of the hacking tools are known to be of Chinese origin, and so much of the information is particularly useful to Chinese companies, or the Chinese military. Moreover, China has refused to assist Western network security specialists and law enforcement efforts in getting access to the Chinese based servers that much of the information is being sent back to.
China appears to be using both government Cyber War units, and many more Chinese freelancers, and computer crime groups, to carry out this large number of attacks. Western defensive efforts have accelerated because of Night Dragon, and governments are working diplomatic channels to try and get the Chinese to back off. Western Cyber War commanders are urging web based counter-strikes, believing that the Chinese will respond to nothing else. If this approach is tried, it will not be announced. That's how this game is played, and, so far, the Chinese have created the rules.
