Defense Dept: Supply Chain and Vulnerabilities

Inside The Ring, By Bill Gertz, Washington Times, December 4, 2008, Pg. B1

Pentagon suppliers

The chairman of a congressional China commission said the panel is concerned that the Pentagon’s reliance on Chinese suppliers has threatened U.S. computers, weapons systems and equipment with sabotage or other remote electronic tampering.

“On defense supply chain, the commissioners remain concerned about the integrity of the defense supply chain, and we are not sure that the defense logistics system managers know what they are getting from China,” said Larry Wortzel, co-chairman of the U.S. China-Economic Security Review Commission. “It is not secure,” he said of the current Pentagon supply chain.

Mr. Wortzel, in an interview, was commenting on one little-noticed finding of the commission in its report made public Nov. 20. The report to Congress warned that widespread Chinese government computer hacking poses risks because of Chinese-supplied parts in U.S. computer networks.

“Components in these computers and networks are manufactured overseas – many of them in China,” the report said. “At least in theory, this equipment is vulnerable to tampering by Chinese security services, such as implanting malicious code that could be remotely activated on command and place U.S. systems or the data they contain at risk of destruction or manipulation.”

In one case, the Pentagon was found to be using hundreds of counterfeit computer routers made in China. “This suggests that at least in part, Defense Department computer systems and networks may be vulnerable to malicious action that could destroy or manipulate information they contain,” the report said.

Mr. Wortzel said the Pentagon logistics agencies in charge of buying the Chinese-made parts gave the commission the “runaround” when panel members asked about the problem.

“Our recommendation is that Congress haul them in and have a classified hearing on this,” Mr. Wortzel said.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong could not be reached for comment. However, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Qin Gang said in a statement Nov. 24 that the commission views China “through tinted lens” and is undermining U.S.-China cooperation by “tarnishing and attacking China deliberately and misleading the general public.”