Information Warfare (IW), along with innovations such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mass casualty terrorism, is a permutation of asymmetric warfare; it is an attempt to challenge the vastly superior conventional forces of the United States by focusing on its vulnerabilities. As such, Chinese hackers might be compared to the privateers covertly endorsed by Tudor England to disrupt the much larger Spanish empire. Although still in its infancy, China’s fascination with IW stems from the fact that it could prove extremely effective. According to a 2001 study by the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College in cyber attack exercises held in 1997 and 1999, the US military found that hackers, using materials available to the general public ‘were able to effectively prevent the United States from waging war effectively’. The study, entitled ‘Chinese Information Warfare: Phantom Menace or Emerging Threat’ by Toshi Yoshihara, also notes that at least one of the exercises was premised on contingencies on the Korean peninsula, clearly indicating that China was the threat being simulated. The fact that this is not new, and has serious implications for US security begs the question why the US does not seem proactive in addressing the issue with the Chinese government diplomatically. To some extent, it is true that such efforts are probably discreet, outside the media spotlight; urging China to revalue the Renminbi publicly is one thing, warning it to cease espionage activities under similar circumstances quite another.