The Row Over International Cyber-Espionage

Using technology to learn something about another individual is nothing new. It’s not too difficult to buy some video surveillance and tag a car with a GPS bug, not to mention conduct a reverse phone lookup or check an IP address. But tech espionage is a relatively new topic on the world stage. Only in the last few years have hackers wrecked havoc on government websites, and only in that same recent span have countries accused each other of planting computer viruses, as in the case of the mysterious bug that hit Iran’s nuclear power system.

This week, political cyper-espionage once again made news, this time in the form of comments made by U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). Rogers, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that the cyper-crime being practice by the Chinese government has now reached unacceptable levels. China has broadened its goal of stealing U.S. government information to now target private American corporations, Rogers claims, which amounts to a breach of intellectual property that is illegal under international law.

Such allegations have been strongly denied by the Chinese government, but experts have long suspected that China has sought access to private data held by finance, technology, defense, and research companies in the United States, and that it has been successful in locating and taking advantage of security flaws.

Some companies, such as Google, have publicly announced that they were victims of a cyper-attack that originated in China. Experts believe that there are many more such cases, but most of these have not been publicized. It is further believed, based on the sophistication of the known attacks, that they could only have been sponsored by an entity with the power and capabilities of the Chinese government.

For the time being, such charges of espionage are just that – nothing more than accusations. Still, it’s worth considering: what are the future implications of this development? For one thing, regardless of the truth behind such claims, the beliefs of Congressman Rogers and others may prompt the U.S. government to create a broad-based national strategy, formed out of a partnership between the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security, to combat cyber-attacks. This would be a welcome response. In the meantime, businesses should remain vigilant about their security and individuals travelling abroad, especially to China, might want to think twice about bringing laptops or phones on which sensitive information is stored.