Rice expert available to comment on suspected Chinese ‘interference’ with US satellites

David Ruth
713-348-6327
druth@rice.edu

Chris Bronk, a fellow in technology, society and public policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and lecturer of computer science, is available to comment on accusations made in a Bloomberg Businessweek story that “computer hackers, possibly from the Chinese military, interfered with two U.S. government satellites four times in 2007 and 2008 through a ground station in Norway.” The story is based on a soon-to-be-published congressional commission report.

“Such interference poses numerous potential threats, particularly if achieved against satellites with more sensitive functions,” Bloomberg reported. “Access to a satellite’s controls could allow an attacker to damage or destroy the satellite. An attacker could also deny or degrade as well as forge or otherwise manipulate the satellite’s transmission.”

In addition to the Bloomberg story, a Computerworld story on the topic cites a paper published by Bronk in which he lays out a fictitious cyberwar between China and the United States. The paper, “Blown to Bits: China’s War in Cyberspace, August-September 2020,” was published in March in the U.S. Air Force journal Strategic Studies Quarterly.

Regarding China’s role in espionage, Bronk said, “There are many countries with active cyber-espionage programs, but China is particularly menacing because of the direct channels that likely exist between its intelligence service and its nationally owned industries, including those in aerospace, information technology and oil and gas.”

In February, Bronk wrote an article that called on the intelligence community to jointly create a policy on cybersecurity and determine the degree to which the U.S. should protect the intellectual property and national infrastructure of other nations. He also commented on how aggressive the United States should be in its proactive cyberspying activities.

The government report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is scheduled to be released later this month.

Bronk previously served as a career diplomat with the United States Department of State on assignments both overseas and in Washington. His last assignment was in the Office of eDiplomacy, the department’s internal think tank on information technology, knowledge management, computer security and interagency collaboration. He also has experience in political affairs, counternarcotics, immigration and U.S.-Mexico border issues. Since arriving at Rice, Bronk has divided his attention among a number of areas, including information security, technology for immigration management, broadband policy, Web 2.0 governance and the militarization of cyberspace. He teaches classes on the intersection of computing and politics in Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering.

Bronk has provided commentary for a variety of news outlets, including ABC, NPR, the BBC and the Houston Chronicle.

Bronk has a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He also studied international relations at Oxford University.

To schedule an interview with Bronk, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at druth@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

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Related materials:

Bloomberg Businessweek story: www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-27/chinese-military-suspected-in-hacker-attacks-on-u-s-satellites.html

Computerworld story: http://m.computerworld.com/s/article/9221257/Chinese_hackers_may_have_attacked_U.S._satellites?taxonomyId=17

Blown to Bits: China’s War in Cyberspace, August-September 2020: www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/2011/spring/bronk.pdf

Bronk’s February article: www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/ITP-pub-BronkTreasureTroveAIJ-022211.pdf

More on Christopher Bronk: http://bakerinstitute.org/personnel/fellows-scholars/cbronk