Internet Vermin
There's a new front for covert hostilities, where one country can launch attacks against others long before such an attack has been identified and in the interim, valuable data can be extracted to benefit the attacking country. Such attacks can take the form of seeking and taking possession of vital national secrets, of classified documents, of national security. And they can take the form of interfering with the delivery of vital services through impacting on systems crucial to a nation's services to its population.The attacks that target government departments at any level, its military, or corporate interests, or scientific/medical and academic computers holding innumerable data valuable not only to the institutions and government offices involved, but to the probing interests of the interlopers, can have the effect of neutralizing the effectiveness and security of the entire economy and security of any country. In a way it's hard to believe that any country would go to such lengths to manipulate data for nefarious purposes.
But of course industrial espionage has always been a problem. And spies, engaged in extracting valuable national data from unwary sources, working for hostile governments, have also always been in evidence. This brave new frontier, of information and complex systems stored on computers and accessible through Internet probes and the transmission of 'viruses', or 'germs', or 'worms', named so to denote their pestiferous presence and intentions, has launched a type of space warfare.
Discreetly and expertly handled, the unaware can have been infected for years without once suspecting that information felt to be completely secure, until it is brought to their attention that security has been breached and the data successfully accessed. Which is precisely what has occurred on a number of occasions in a number of countries, including Canada. Supposedly secure systems mysteriously not so secure any longer.
It can be mystifying, the manner in which determined spies can write complex codes to access and infect secure systems without divulging the source of the spy network. But experts in the field of security do have means of identifying sources, and it would appear that it is not merely scuttlebutt that identifies China as that source, but signature identifiers that confirm it to be the source.
China is big on denial. And since it is so commonly accepted internationally that China will resort to any kind of underhanded advances to ensure it has the upper hand in any international relationships, the situation evolves where those affected must take direct and immediate steps to protect themselves, if they can, from further incursions into their secret national documents. Appealing to China to cease and desist is the stuff of fantasy.
China remains unabashed and innocent. The world has long since been placed on notice. The irritation quotient, let alone the knowledge of huge security and financial losses incurred does not make for good relationships. It does remind the international community that they must deal with a hugely powerful and rogue administration of the most populous country in the world.
An steadily-emerging political-economic powerhouse. Of trade advantages and malicious interference. Other, more far-reaching agendas can only be guessed at.
Labels: China, Communication, Conflict, Corruption, Crime
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, August 04, 2011
<< Home