Blog Post #3: Conflict in the digital age
The article I chose to write about for this post deals with China’s response to a U.S. report claiming that China is using cyber espionage to steal U.S. trade secrets in order to enhance their own development as a nation. The report, released to congress on Thursday, November 3 2011 was done by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, which is a government agency. It claims that U.S. corporations have reported intrusions into their networks that had originated in China, but also acknowledges the fact that the intelligence department cannot confirm exactly who is behind these attacks. China dismissed these statements by inferring that the U.S. allegations are “unprofessional and irresponsible” by identifying the attackers before carrying out a more in-depth investigation.
There have been a long history of reports in this nation that have strongly suggested the fact that China is one of the worlds’ biggest perpetrators of malicious cyber-espionage and computer hacking. According to Search Engine Watch, in January of 2010, Google announced that it was hit with a cyber-attack that had originated in China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property. According to the Guardian, a United Kingdom news site, in August of this year, a Chinese State Broadcaster screened footage that showed army-labeled software designed for attacking United States-based websites. The U.S. isn’t the only victim of Chinese cyber-attacks. According to Tony Glover of the National Conversation, in February of this year, McAffe, a U.S. security company, detected a number of cyber-attacks on global oil, petrochemical, and energy companies that had been occurring since November of 2009. Countries in the Middle East were the primary targets of the attacks which have become known as “Night Dragon.”
The report released on Tuesday, in my opinion, further confirms the fact the China is launching an alarmingly high number of cyber-attacks on the U.S., and on other nations around the world. China’s communist government, their extreme human rights violations and other factors have created tense relations between the U.S. and Chinese governments. From the secret build-up of the Chinese military, to these strong allegations of extensive cyber-attacks, the actions of the Chinese government are far from transparent. In my opinion, the response of the Chinese government to the report should only raise further suspicions. The report that was released did include extensive research, and was supported by strong evidence. The fact that the Chinese were so quick to dismiss the allegations, which were credible, goes to show this is not a topic they wish to discuss. If what China says is true, and they are not responsible for these attacks, it would be in their best interest to make a stronger effort to prove the allegations to be false, rather than just saying that they are false.
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