“China’s digital muscle power is a decade behind it …

In the report, IISS ranks countries according to their Internet capabilities. The British think tank is based, among other things, on the strength of their digital economies, the strength of intelligence and security services, and how cyber applications are integrated into military operations.

China and Russia have already made it clear in the past that they are capable of attacking cyber activities such as online espionage, intellectual property theft and misinformation campaigning primarily targeting the United States. But, the IISS ends, they themselves are hampered by relatively weak cyber security.

As for China, the report said that the limited focus on monitoring its networks may be due to Beijing’s massive efforts to censor the domestic Internet to prevent politically bad information. In addition, the British think tank has advanced the analysis of digital intelligence among the Chinese less than the so-called ‘five eyes’, an intelligence alliance of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

As a result, the British think tank has only the United States at the highest level of cyber capabilities. In second place are Australia, Canada, China, France, Israel, Russia and the United Kingdom. The third group includes India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea and Vietnam.

According to IISS, Americans excel in professional digital applications, cryptography and the ability to carry out “sophisticated, surgical” cyber attacks. In addition, they reap the benefits of alliances with other Internet powers, such as the ‘Five Eyes’. According to the British think tank, China will need at least a decade to match US Internet capabilities.