perfidy

B,
Whether it's Chinese gubmint agents doing this or freelancers selling the stuff to China, the net result is the same. And it's certainly cause for concern and caution, particularly regarding the networking of DoD computers.

But I must add that Amurricans have demonstrated time and again a peculiar brand of homegrown sneakiness all our own. I wonder what sort of shenanigans we're pulling on, or via, our adversaries' computer systems.

GL, good point. While I certainly feel that all efforts should be made to prevent such chicom sneakiness; I don't feel that it is any surprise that they are doing it, and I can grant that from their perspective, there is very little wrong with doing it. I earnestly hope that we are doing even more sneaky things to their networks. (In fact, given that most of their network infrastructure was built or at least designed here in the states, I can imagine many, many opportunities for deviousness.)

Aside from the inherent fascination with the process of espionage revealed in the article, the real reason I posted it can be found in the second sentence. This is one more thing in a long line of things that indicate that China has no perception of Sino-American relations that relates even vaguely to the "strategic partner" crap that emanates from greedy boneheads on both sides of the aisle.

B,
I see it as marketing, after a fashion, to keep passions cool enough to ensure continued free 'n easy trade. So since marketing = bollocks, there you go. And there's no reason for China to consider the US as anything other than an adversary, in terms of regional influence anyway.

But that of course is very different from saying that we must build up our armed forces with the mission being to destroy the Chinese military in detail and occupy the major cities, or to presume that China, like Canada, has an insatiable lust for world domination. I'm skeptical that China has a "today Taiwan, tomorrow the WORLD!" attitude, after all.

I owuld be interested in learning more about why the DoD feels it necessary to have these tremendous computer networks in the first place, or contractors too. Why would a team building the next generation of ultra lethal widgets need to have a network that's only going to be breached at some point? Can't they do their work and have them unplugged?

Beats me. The only secure computer is one disconnected from any network, in a locked room that no one has a key to, and turned off. And bashed all to hell with a baseball bat and exposed to very strong magnetic fields for good measure.

But I imagine that the scientists and engineers need to play bejeweled every once in a while to blow off steam.

I remember the first time my Dad took me out to Wright Patterson AFB to his "other office".

It was a trailer in the middle of a field, painted in reddish-orange and white checks, and contained the computer he and his team worked on. Connected to nothing but the electric generator outside.

I don't specifically recall - I'll have to ask him if there was a baseball bat around.