The RHA has a paid staff, including university trained network security experts. Officially, the RHA provides training and advice about network security. But the RHA is has also apparently absorbed the thousands of Chinese hackers who used to belong to informal hacker organizations. These groups often openly launched Cyber War attacks against foreign targets. One of the more notorious examples of this was in the Spring of 2001, when outraged Chinese hackers went after American targets in the wake of a Chinese fighter crashing, after colliding with an American P-3 patrol aircraft. American hackers fought back, and apparently there was more damage on the Chinese side.
This is an interesting privatization of an increasingly important aspect of warfare. So what happens when the hackers of a country wage their own war against another state contrary to state policy? Who do we retaliate against if foreign hackers hit us contrary to their government's official policy? What if other countries are unhappy with our hackers who attack them? What responsibility do we have to track them down? Just how are freelance warriors on the web to be treated?
I asked this question back in December and still have no answers. Cyberbooters will not likely go away, however. And governments will need to answer these questions before too long.
