BEIJING, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Officials in China deny involvement in cyberattacks, saying that would violate Chinese law, but video aired recently on state TV demonstrated such an attack.
Viewers of a brief clip on China Central Television last month saw a military computer program in which the target -- a Falun Gong Web site -- is picked for "attack," The Washington Post reported.
The footage was part of a state media documentary titled "The Cyber Storm Has Arrived!" and appeared to indicate China's development of cyber weaponry, the newspaper said.
The clip was first reported by the Epoch Times, a news service affiliated with the Falun Gong group, which is banned in China. In the documentary, the Post reported, Col. Du Wenlong, a researcher at China's top military research institute, says China's ability to attack and to defend its networks "must be interwoven."
"To keep up with the pace of virtual technology, we must increase our fighting ability," he said.
The footage seemed at variance with China's claims it does not engage in cyberattacks, experts told The Wall Street Journal.
The Post reported experts have said China has had cyber-warfare capability for more than a decade, and wants to develop it following the U.S. launch of a Cyber Command. The report said Du, in the documentary, described several types of cyberattacks that could be used including "logic bombs" implanted in an adversary's networks.
Western experts told the Post the computer program in the video was not especially sophisticated and probably does not represent state-of-the-art of Chinese cyber capabilities.
The Post said a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined further comment on the video.
The Journal said the Pentagon in July published a new strategy to respond to cyberattacks from outside the country in the wake of attacks in the past on U.S. targets, including Google and Lockheed Martin. U.S. officials have said they suspect those attacks originated in China.
