User:Blank61/sandbox

Unit 61486
Branch	Peoples Liberation Army
Type	Cyber Force
Nickname(s)	Putter Panda

Response by Chinese Government

Zhabei District from Pearl Tower, where Unit 61486's headquarter is believed to be in

Practicing Citations

Source 1: This source is focused on China’s cyberwarfare campaign which gives valuable insight into how Unit 61486, and 11 other units within the GSD Third Department are structured. Whilst it is not focused solely on the unit 61486, how the organisation of the unit and the eleven other groups will be useful information, this is due to why Unit 61486 targeted those organisations being linked to the organisation structure of the Third Department, and the other unit they have been accused of cooperating with. Thus the information gathered from this source will primarily be used in the “History” section of the article as well as the opening description. This is because its details are focused on the organisation that Unit 61486 is part of, rather than the actions of said unit.

Source 2: This source looks at the aftermath of the crowdstrike report, and how it links with the previous allegations of another unit, 61398 launch cyber attacks with similar goals of stealing information from American corporations. It also looks at how the American Justice Department indicted 5 people they accuse of being from 61398 the previous month, and how that also relates to the exposure of Unit 61486. Additionally, it looks at how the Chinese Government responded to these allegations, as Edward Snowden’s leaking of America’s spying had occurred only the month before. This focus means this source's information will be used in the sections “Exposing of Operations” as well as “Response by Chinese Government”.

Source 3: This source is an overview of Crowdstrikes report with a focus on the exposing of an alleged member of Unit 61486, as well as what is believed to have happened to this individual once accusations were directed at them. Furthermore this article goes into the methods used by Crowdstrike to identify this individual. This source will be used in the sections “Exposing of Operations” and “Response by Chinese Government”. This is due to the focus of the article being on who this individual was, as well as the efforts to then hide this individual once these allegations were directed at them. This source also goes into how these cyberattacks are focused on disrupting ↵☃☃Source 3: This source is an overview of Crowdstrikes report with a focus on the exposing of an alleged member of Unit 61486, as well as what is believed to have happened to this individual once accusations were directed at them. Furthermore this article goes into the methods used by Crowdstrike to identify this individual. This source will be used in the sections “Exposing of Operations” and “Response by Chinese Government”. This is due to the focus of the article being on who this individual was, as well as the efforts to then hide this individual once these allegations were directed at them. This source also goes into how these cyberattacks are focused on disrupting

Source 4: This source is focused on how the United States government, particularly the Department of Defense contextualises Crowdstrikes report, as well as the report done by Mandiant, another security on Unit 61398 back in February of 2013. It goes into further detail on what the US government believes to be additional aims to stealing intellectual property in these cyber attacks, as well as briefly mentioning how the Department of Defence believes these cyber attacks are one of the methods employed by the PLA for modernising their military. Thus this information will be primarily used in the sections “Exposing of Operations” and “Response by Chinese Government”.

Source 5: This source is a report on Unit 61486, and its actions. It details how this unit was able to steal information from its targets during a seven year period from 2007 up until 2014, as well as why they were targeted. As such, This information will be used in the “History” section. It also goes into the process they used to expose an alleged member of this unit, and how from the information they were able to gather on this individual determine how the PLA was involved in these hackings. It also goes into detail on how they were able to find this unit, and where they are based at. Therefore this information will be used in the “Exposing of Operations” section. It additionally names two of the organisations that were victims of the Unit 61486 actions, which will be mentioned in the “Operations” section. Crowdstrike is a security firm specialising in online security, thus their expertise would be in this field, which lends credibility to their claim that Unit 61486 exists, as well as the allegations that they were also involved in these attacks.

Source 6: This source is another overview of Crowdstrikes report, with additional information on the response made by the Chinese Government. As such this source will be used primarily in the section “Response by Chinese Government”. This source goes into detail as to what repercussions the United States could face due to their accusations of spying, as well as how Edward Snowden's leaking of America’s surveillance program influenced China’s response to these accusations. This source also mentions how, even though tensions between the US and China had only worsened at the time, China had still accepted an offer to take part in a military exercise, organised by the United States that would take place the following month.

Further Reading

Category: Cyberwarfare