“We are already involved in a cyber-war with China and we are only reading about a small percentage of the actual attacks that are occurring.”

So says Darren Hayes, a leading expert in computer forensics and security who has been a consultant on legal cases involving digital evidence. Hayes is a professor at Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems in New York who began a 10-year career in the financial services industry in 1990 with Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center. He manages the computer forensics laboratory at Pace, conducting research with computer science and information systems students. Much of this research has been published through the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

“Attacks originating from China have been on the increase and, by all accounts, will continue to rise. We are already involved in a cyber-war with China and we are only reading about a small percentage of the actual attacks that are occurring.

“Moreover, attacks by China occur frequently on universities and law firms. This is because law firms will maintain vast quantities of data during intellectual property and eDiscovery cases but law firms generally don’t have the best computer security.

“Universities can be a soft target for Chinese hackers and provide a wealth of information; remember that universities will work in cooperation with the Department of Defense on important projects that give the US technical advantages.

“Data exfiltration is problematic; a tremendous amount of collaboration now occurs between US universities and Chinese universities and in many cases US universities will have a campus in China. This is problematic because, unlike a corporation, it is difficult to block network traffic of IP addresses in China because much of the traffic is legitimate.

“Advanced Persistent Threats are the biggest threat to US national security and the future competitive viability of our nation. These threats are advanced because the hackers, predominantly from China, are the perpetrators of technically advanced attacks. They primarily target Windows-based systems because businesses mainly use PCs and instead of finding flaws in the Windows operating system, which has automatic updates since Vista, hackers will focus on other applications, like Adobe, where users are less likely to download an update.”

BACKGROUND: As the Computer Information Systems Program Chair at Pace, Hayes has cultivated partnerships with the United Nations, New York Police Department and many other respected agencies. He has appeared on Fox 5 News and recently has been quoted by CNN.com, Forensic Magazine, Huffington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, MarketWatch, Network World, the New York Post, USA Today, and Wired News.