Wednesday, January 27, 2010

China's "black ops:" hacking away at U.S. power


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Who would have expected the agressive forward strategy of a more assertive China?

In a cyber attack on Google and other Western computer companies.

Well, it should be no great surprise.

For China's capacity to assert itself has been growing -- and so has been its annoyance at the ability of the internet to penetrate its "closed" society.

So China now has its own brand of "black ops."

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Hacking open Google mail accounts is minor compared to the possibility, but not probability, that Chinese and other cyber warriors could bring the American economy to its knees.

China is just one of several nations which need on occasion to stand up to the United States.

Countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Russia already have or will soon have cyber war capacity.

In the wake of U.S. military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, nations confronting the US more than ever seek nuclear weapons and cyber arsenals to put limits on American power.

More frequent cyber attacks ahead?


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China sees its cyber war arsenal as an important insurance policy to assert its influence and stave off American dominance.

It is a carefully orchestrated cockpit of conflict -- where a Chinese government sensitive to internal dissent threatens an assault on the very technology which is part of its opening into the modern world.

As China grows stronger, it can be expected, as in the past, to insist upon standing up.




It need not actually take down the American economy or the global internet.

Still, demonstrating its capacity carries a big, if quiet, stick.

This then, for now, is one flavor in today's sometimes dysfunctional America-- China relationship.

In the insecurity of the Chinese government lies the need for an aggressive outward kick.....


So it has often been with authoritarian, insecure regimes.

But this time we have a modern one -- with the power to punch --- to enlist skilled hackers into military style units with orders when and where to strike.


The importance of a little minor hacking is that it reminds of far more aggressive steps which could be taken to undermine American power.


Some experts believe China's underground stable of hackers could bring the American economy to its knees.

So what can or should Americans do?




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Should they threaten or take retaliation? Should they even, under certain circumstances, strike first?

From
The New York Times on China's more agressive rise.

From
The New York Times on how the U.S. finds no easy "digital deterrent."

1 comment:

Coatepeque said...

Google is still in China, they are not leaving.