This blog is a complement to Georgetown University's COSC-011 Introduction to Information Privacy.
Monday, March 30, 2009
China's Cyber Spies
The following video interview conducted by CNN in 2008 illustrates how China's "patriotic hackers" work with but not necessarily at the direction of the Chinese government.
This video/article is very troubling to me. Despite taking all the necessary precautions and safety measures to ensure internet protection, hackers are still able to exploit a site's weaknesses making 100% security impossible. Hackers are nothing new to me, but I had no idea that they had that kind of ability. Moreover, as seen through this video, those that have and develop hacker skills will continue to grow. These hackers in the video are just a few of many that offer their advice and free software downloads for breaking into computer systems. One can only imagine the damage that could be caused when these skills are refined in this internet generation.
The fact that a few hackers were allegedly able to break into the Pentagon's system is particularly worrisome due to the importance of the information at stake. However, the much bigger issue is if these hackers were employed by the Chinese government. This is all speculation, but if this cyber warfare were too, the United States would have real problems on its hands from a foreign diplomacy standpoint. If the Chinese or an ally went to war with the US, the Chinese would be able to exploit the US's strategic weaknesses with the information it gathered from hacking into the Pentagon putting the whole nation at risk. This would obviously be a very serious offense, but it is so hard to prove fault in hacking due the anonymity of it. Nevertheless, what this video/article shows is that the US ought to increase its system protections from hackers as well as continuing to do a better job of patrolling internet cyberspace for hackers and their affiliations.
In my spare time I am an Adjunct Professor in the Computer Science Department at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. This blog chronicles our class discussion and applies theories of Information Privacy and Security to everyday events.
1 comment:
This video/article is very troubling to me. Despite taking all the necessary precautions and safety measures to ensure internet protection, hackers are still able to exploit a site's weaknesses making 100% security impossible. Hackers are nothing new to me, but I had no idea that they had that kind of ability. Moreover, as seen through this video, those that have and develop hacker skills will continue to grow. These hackers in the video are just a few of many that offer their advice and free software downloads for breaking into computer systems. One can only imagine the damage that could be caused when these skills are refined in this internet generation.
The fact that a few hackers were allegedly able to break into the Pentagon's system is particularly worrisome due to the importance of the information at stake. However, the much bigger issue is if these hackers were employed by the Chinese government. This is all speculation, but if this cyber warfare were too, the United States would have real problems on its hands from a foreign diplomacy standpoint. If the Chinese or an ally went to war with the US, the Chinese would be able to exploit the US's strategic weaknesses with the information it gathered from hacking into the Pentagon putting the whole nation at risk. This would obviously be a very serious offense, but it is so hard to prove fault in hacking due the anonymity of it. Nevertheless, what this video/article shows is that the US ought to increase its system protections from hackers as well as continuing to do a better job of patrolling internet cyberspace for hackers and their affiliations.
Post a Comment