It would appear that both China and Russia are attacking the US these days. What they are stealing is high-tech American research and development data and an American government report released on Thursday offers the sharpest criticism to date. China has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and there were no immediate responses to the latest allegations. You can read the full news story on USA Today here.
While we are busy fighting global terrorism on foreign shores, it would appear that the Chinese and the Russians have now found ways to infiltrate our technological domain. The Congressional report released recently was called the Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage and focused on data that was stolen during 2009 through 2011.
On another Russian espionage thread of news, Russian spy Anna Chapman was caught on FBI surveillance tapes as she carried out spy activities with fellow espionage agents.
Do you feel like we’re living in an era of James Bond all over again? The overwhelming sense of mutual distrust and enmity that grew into the Cold War following the events of WWII seems to be mounting again.
What exactly is the high-tech American research that these countries are seeking to steal?
According to PC Magazine, there are four categories:
“information and communications technology;
business information about scarce natural resources that might help foreign countries during negotiations with U.S. businesses;
military technologies like marine systems and unmanned aerial vehicles;
and emerging tech industries like clean energy and healthcare.”
Honestly, I would rather see our country involved in a Cyber War than another global conflict.
Perhaps a better solution would be a sharing trend so the wars can end.
Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-03/china-russia-cybercrime/51064724/1
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395830,00.asp#fbid=UxpSbwzfCqR
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/03/us/china-russia-industrial-espionage/index.html?hpt=wo_c2
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/1102/Anna-Chapman-the-plagiarist-New-accusations-in-wake-of-FBI-s-Russia-spy-sting