14 DAY TRIAL // Cyber-attacks hailing from China have been unsuccessful against the US Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project, whose purpose is development of military aircraft for the nations included in the program.
US General Christopher Bogdan said that the JSF secrets did not leak into the wrong hands, despite documents pointing to the contrary, and that the similarities between the latest fighter jets created by China and the aircraft in the JSF were only cosmetic.
The general was interviewed by News Corp on Sunday in Melbourne and told the publication that the F-35 jet was special from all points of view, that the technology in the aircraft was years ahead what China had built (referring to the Chengdu jet, which looks like F-35).
NSA fought Chinese intrusions, data was lost
According to documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Chinese hackers managed to steal the blueprints of the F-35 fighter jet.
The file, a top secret presentation from the NSA, shows that the agency took action to identify and stop cyber-attacks deployed by China on US military organizations.
The attempts amounted to hundreds per year and the stolen data was estimated at terabytes, and it regarded the radar system, engine and methods used for cooling exhaust gases.
Defense contractors breached
In June 2014, a Chinese by the name of Su Bin was charged and arrested on hacking charges against Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which had large defense contracts, for cargo plane C-17, and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets.
Bin and two other accomplices penetrated the computer networks of the two companies between 2009 and 2013, and exfiltrated details about parts and performance of the aircraft.
The Chinese owned an aviation company (Lode Technologies) based in China, with an office in Canada, and is believed to have acted as a guide for the two hackers, telling them which information was of value and should be pursued. The attacks were discovered to be carried out from China.
The communication between the three was conducted over Gmail and the messages would be written both in Chinese and English. According to investigators, the information would be sold to state-owned Chinese companies.
The JSF boss is right in saying that the Chinese fighter jets are years behind, as the Chengdu J-20 and the Shenyang J-3, believed to include F-35 technology, are expected to be fully operational somewhere between 2017 and 2019.