quote:The researchers concluded that computers based almost exclusively in China were responsible for the intrusions, although they stopped short of saying the Chinese government was involved in the system
quote:A spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York dismissed the idea China was involved. "These are old stories and they are nonsense," the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, told the Times. "The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cybercrime."
The report says it could be the Russians, or the CIA, but I don't buy it. Based on past reports (cf here and here), China is quite dominant in cyber warfare; they seem much better at it than any other country in the world. I find that...troubling.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I wouldn't necessarily say that they're better at it than anyone else, but they're certainly caught at it more often. Which means either that they're worse at it than everyone else, or that they're doing a whole lot more of it.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
the last figure I saw was upwards of 3 million intrusion attempts via chinese servers a year.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
I'm as concerned with Big Brother as the next internet geek, but I don't buy the idea that Google has some ulterior motive that we should fear, or that we have a great reason to be concerned with their glut of information in general, for any reason.
The grocery store knows what I like to buy, because I use a card to save money. Google knows where I drive when I use Google Maps. The credit card company knows where I shop. The government knows what foreign countries I visit. Everyone on the internet knows my opinions on a variety of topics (like this one). The DMV knows where I live and has a record of my face and thumb print. My insurance company knows what kind of car I own and how far I drive it.
So what? How is any of that information going to hurt me? Of all the things I could be concerned about, those kinds of things just don't rank. I'm much more concerned that the TSA could detain me indefinitely for having a 12 oz soda in my bag, or that Apple might decide one day that I no longer have the right to listen to hundreds (thousands?) of dollars of music that I paid for.
Those seem like real, viable concerns to me. The idea that Google scans my emails for targeted text ads or that they know what maps I have made is meaningless.