One of the key findings of a Chinese expert on information security is the authenticity of recent documents that leaked information on the F-35 fighter jet and sensitive US weapons. According to the expert, the documents appear authentic.
Ivan Ivanov, an alleged Russian pilot with the handle Fighterbomber, claimed to be a Telegram encrypted messaging service user. He argued that an American company had provided him with 250 gigabytes of US military data between the two countries.
It was published on July 2 by Fighterbomber on their YouTube channel, which has more than 500,000 subscribers. A day later, on July 3, he uploaded more leaked data to the YouTube channel.
There are still a few documents that can be downloaded from the uploaded folder.
When it came to gaining information about a potential adversary's military secrets, the intelligence community once had gone to great lengths.
In the early 1980s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spent several years attempting to acquire a Soviet T-72 main battle tank (MBT), while it reportedly paid $5,000 to the Afghan Mujahedeen for capturing the first AK-74 assault rifle.
It has been reported that several documents have been leaked, including F-35 aircraft manuals and documents concerning the F-15, its modifications, weapons systems, and the Switchblade drone and precision-guided missiles.
Tang said, the documents are detailed and their format is similar to other US military information that has also been leaked on the web earlier this year.
There is no doubt that these documents are not strictly blueprints or design documents, and only professionals can truly assess their actual value.
In response to the leaks, military enthusiasts have been discussing how they could now construct a fighter jet in the garage if they had the right parts.
As the Chinese aviation blogger Makayev mentioned on his video channel, there appear to be three distinct categories when it comes to aircraft leaks.
First, there are flight manuals, maintenance manuals, and aircrew weapons delivery manuals for the F-15SA, the version of the aircraft sold to Saudi Arabia over a decade ago. There are two types of manuals in the collection: the first is for the engine maintenance manual for the F110 engine that is used in the F-15SA, and the second is for the precision-guided missile user manuals.
It appears that these texts are more likely to be simplified introductions to the design processes than detailed descriptions. They are likely to be orientated toward maintenance personnel and less likely to offer insights that could benefit China's mature military aviation industry, according to Makayev.
As other commentators have pointed out, despite the Russian pilot's claim of having access to 250 gigabytes of data, additional manuals regarding aircraft maintenance and weapon designs may still be released later in the future, including some that may disclose the aircraft's weaknesses, especially given the pilot's assertion that he has access to 250 gigabytes.
As Tang pointed out, there were several possibilities for the leaks, including a breach from a US defence firm or a third party pretending to be one of them.
There were some parts of the F-35 documents that were partially redacted, which may indicate that they had already been declassified by that point.
The official secrecy surrounding the older F-15 is lower, according to Tang, because it is regarded as a less valuable model.
Tang stated that similar leaks were unlikely to occur in China, attributing this to the country's robust data security and confidentiality laws. According to Tang, the effectiveness of these policies, when properly implemented by security departments, would ensure that any potential breaches could be effectively contained.
An anonymous expert from a Chinese military research institution emphasized that the institution regularly conducts data security training and evaluations.
These measures were designed to ensure strict compliance with confidentiality obligations and to maintain the highest standards of data protection.
Rising Information Technology, through a WeChat post, advised the public against downloading suspicious documents. The advisory warned that hackers might exploit popular events to disseminate viruses. It cautioned that downloading malicious documents could lead to devices being infected with ransomware or Trojan viruses, thus posing significant risks to users' data security.
