The year 2014 was not a great one for American security interests, from the Russian invasion of Crimea to the rise of the Islamic State and China’s creeping expansionism in the South China Sea, but decades from now we may look back and say that the most significant setbacks occurred in the cyber realm. Over the past year and a half, a team of hackers infiltrated the computers of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and stole files on current and former federal employees and contractors going back to 1985. The latest estimate is that the breaches affected 18 to 32 million people, including not just employees and contractors themselves but also their families and other contacts listed in disclosure forms, which personnel must regularly fill out to acquire and retain security clearances. All signs point to China as the source.
While Beijing of course denies responsibility, this is only the latest in a series of Chinese hacks and real-world activities aimed at extracting secret or proprietary information from the United States. Taken in isolation, each act seems explicable on the relatively narrow grounds of corporate interest or routine state-sponsored espionage, but together, they are salvos in what high-ranking Chinese military officers 15 years ago dubbed “unrestricted warfare” against the United States. Embracing both military and non-military means, this effort is about nothing short of an attempt to compel the United States to bow to Beijing’s interests.
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