14 DAY TRIAL // After the article that appeared in the Financial Times last week, a lot of papers and sites have been writing about Chinese hackers and their possible connection to the People's Liberation Army. Some have even said that the hacks were the PLA's work, even though Chinese officials have been denying any government implication. Also, some journalists have said that the Chinese PLA, with their war-hackers can take out a whole fleet of carriers. Now, please think twice before believing such things.
Journalists that write in the technology domain aren't always tech-savvy, fact which can only pain me. Now, let's try and clear up things regarding cyberwar. The recent attacks on certain governments have been made by Chinese hackers. That's true, but as for their links with China's government, well, that's just a guess. We can only speculate on this, but there is nothing sure on the matter.
As for China's army, they do have an anti-satellite rocket that can be used to hit targets that are 500km from the Earth's surface. That will mess up communication. We know that, because they revealed it after testing the rocket on one of their own satellites. And hackers - connected or not with the army - can take down servers. That might result in taking down communications as well, but nothing more. Sure, it's a pretty nasty thing, but in no way will that destroy a fleet. You can't take down a ship by hacking into a computer. Let's be serious, you need subs, ships and planes to take down an aircraft carrier, not some geek and a keyboard. And suppose the stuff we see in the movies actually happens in reality and a hacker remotely controls an army computer, you can just yank out a cable, and the threat's over!
What's even worse is the fact that not everyone that is interested in this news really knows a lot about hacking and some will be misled. No hacker can destroy a ship, or a plane, or a tank; they can sure hack a PC, but they can't do anything to war machines, that's something we all need to have clear in our minds.