An intelligence report posted by International Relations and Security Network (ISN) at the Center for Security Studies at ETH in Zurich reveals what appears to be a widening and systematic program of cyber attacks on US government data infrastructure by elements within the military organ of China.
Rachel Kesselman at ISN Security Watch writes-
According to a 2006 US Defense Department report, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began developing information warfare reserves and militia units in 2005, often incorporating them into broader exercises and training. The establishment of this elite Chinese unit is evident by a likely increase in sophisticated attacks on high-risk targets.
Reports in Chinese newspapers also suggest that the Chinese are actively attempting to establish a cybermilitia. A Time Magazine article entitled “Enemies at The Firewall” purports that the military has put forth a concerted effort to carry out nationwide recruiting campaigns in hopes of discovering the country’s most brilliant hackers.
Like so many Americans, I live in a bubble. The extent and brazenness of the activity reported by ISN and other sources only serves to stimulate the paranoid cortex of my brain.
What seems likely is that most nations are engaged in systematic probing of the data resources of the upper tier states. Chinese enthusiasm for this activity may or may not be exceptional among the nuclear states. Certainly, computer spycraft is nothing new and that China practices it shouldn’t be a surprise.
Henry Kissinger once remarked that nation states do not have friends. They only act in parallel with states having similar interests. In this vein, we should not be lulled into thinking that China, or any other state for that matter, is our friend. China is certainly not our friend. The US is a fountain of wealth that they aim to tap through government backed market activity.
Economic idealogues in the US prattle on tirelessly about the virtues of the free market and the merits of regulatory deconstruction. But on the global scale, markets are unavoidably tied to regulatory constructs as a result of notions about security and dominance.
Just try to get a shipment of anything to China or to South Africa or into the USA. There is no free market. Every single aspect of a transaction is highly regulated or controlled by some apparatus that is highly controlled. Tariff codes, tariffs, shipping reglations, wire transfers, and customs clearance- the reality of a free market barely extends past the canopy of a fruitstand in a farmers market.
I believe that the US should cast off this free market puritanism and act in a manner so as to protect its economic interests. Yes, we’d like to keep as free a market as possible. But American culture, not government, has to be the locus of change. American culture should de-emphasize its fascination with pure wealth and look askance at the sterile detachment many influential businessmen have with regard to their profit motive. We want to be profitable. But we do not want to hand over the keys to our technological toolshed for a quick buck. If we cannot afford to manufacture here, there should be an expectation that we try to innovate around the economic barriers rather than just resort to abandonment.
We should be wary about using the language of friendship with China. This nation has its own sense of where it is headed and has become quite refractory to admonitions and paternalistic brow beatings by the US and others. It has its own momentum and will do what is in its best interest. Americans should do what is in their best interest as well. That is, avoid trading the farm to foreign interests who have much more discipline with their attention span.
America’s Achilles heel seems to be the inability to be patient and plan for results over the long term. We live in a NOW culture. Advances in computer technology has only engorged our expectation that we can and should have everything now. The mortgage and credit crises are only the latest examples of this.
American culture has gotten fat and lazy. Our rotund wastelines are only the exterior. Within our culture is a kind of bacchanalian sloth that has drifted like a fog into our collective yard party. Everyone is too busy eating and drinking to notice that the greed-heads have set the house on fire.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
Amen, brother! You say it!
“America’s Achilles heel seems to be the inability to be patient and plan for results over the long term”
I agree with this statement, but America’s problems relate to its large population, large physical size and immigration centric plan for growth. I doubt Sweden or Switzerland have such problems, because their smaller more manageable populations make solving problems much easier. An Israeli friend once told me that a million bucks of corruption in Israel would be a major issue. Here it is just pocket change for an afternoon of graft.
What does a citizen get from the govt in this country? Paved streets and a decent police force in most areas. Our free trade policies are not meant to improve the lot of the common man.
Having rubbed shoulders with many Europeans, I see great transportation, health care and funded education. There is a more tangible sense of cohesion on what it is to be a national. Here we have a tortuous political system that is inherently pro-status quo and anti-change (in a bad way). We squander trillions on armor plated Hummers yet deny health care to young and old. All of societal progress has been related to GDP growth. Since much of this growth is being used to pave the streets in China, it is a poor measure of prosperity in a global world.
I think we should be less concerned with growth and more concerned with taking care of our own. America is too much of a pay to play system. To change it, you might need to rewrite the constitution. I fear in the next twenty five years we will likely descend into a police state. GPS, the internet and fast computers are all you need to accomplish this.
As for your waistline commentary?
It was once said that “America was one of the few countries where the rich people were thin and the poor people fat”.
Within the vein of a culture where the upper upper upper tiers (<10%) control 95% of the resources I find your commentary perplexing. I’m going to assume a bottle of Wild Turkey crept onto your desk and the demons of Hunter S were in the room at the time.
“American culture has gotten fat and lazy” and “Within our culture is a kind of bacchanalian sloth that has drifted like a fog into our collective yard party. Everyone is too busy eating and drinking to notice that the greed-heads have set the house on fire.”
Not sure what you mean. I assume you meant to say the poor were fat and lazy? Since we don’t have a welfare state, perhaps you should open your eyes to the facts that poor people work three jobs and eat crappy, fat laden food because it’s all they can afford. If you’re not in a warm climate, it can be difficult to find places to walk, much less run. Everyone the middle class is working their ass of today. Aren’t you? But yes, empty stomachs are a good platform for revolution. Since the lower 90% don’t control anything, I’m not sure what you want them to do. Vote for Hillary Clinton? Your persistent use of the word ‘We’ is perhaps disingenuous.
As for the screw-heads?
Well they’re in the process of a complete takeover. They’ve always been in control, yet they are becoming a parasite bigger than the host. I suppose our laws which grant corporations unlimited rights to screw consumers are part of the problem They pump out Mc-Jobs while the real growth jobs are heading to China (our good friends). The people are becoming weaker and weaker.
I think you are sensitive to the fact that our society is regressing, No sense of progress or direction. Most policies are constructed for corporate growth and yes once upon a time ‘what was good for GM was good for America.’ No longer.
The Roman Empire did not hold meetings, the Roman Emprie slit throats. If you assaulted a single citizen of Rome your country was demolished and its people slaughered in retribution. Consider Sparticus’ friends crucified at short intervals along the entire Appian way until their rotted bones fell off the crosses. Rome softened that policy and was overrun by Aleric and his Goths. When the gates of Rome fell the city mob did not defend, they joined with the barbarians in looting.
“Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!” The US hasn’t had any balls since. We are well past the tipping point in finance, society, industrial production, and military will. Ride ’em cowboy! Ride ’em right down to Hell.
If the Uncle Al household gets that $600 income tax rebate we will save the US economy by purchasing 12 ga. #4 Buck shotshells. Some may say “gee, that is an awful lot of shotshells.” Only until the firing starts. Think of it as evolution in action. Then, we learn Chinese.
Hi Gonzo.
This post may be a good example of a major weakness of blogs and blogging. That would be the lack of editors. I started the post with one message and ended with another. A good editor would not have allowed that to happen. I guess I’m not a good editor.
Indeed, I am haunted by some of the same ghosts as HST, but not with whiskey.
I’m struggling to articulate a notion that I have about our culture. There is something distinctly odd about the detachment of our citizens from those business and gov’t people who are driving the boat. The corrupting effect of DC and big business seems to be irresistable.
Our elected Political Corps seems unable to manage internal and external issues simultaneously. Our constitution does not provide enough flexibility for the rectification of incompetent presidents and other elected officials.
Americans are the beneficiaries of the best advances that civilization has to offer. Yet we are a surprisingly violent people. Americans have produced fantastic advances in biomedicine, yet we also excel in the design of weaponry and the projection of force. We live in a hostile world, but I’m uncomfortable with our exceptional handiness for devising truly exquisite weaponry. Even Oppenheimer was enchanted with the elegance of the bomb.
My reference to wastelines and fat and lazy attributes has more to do with lazy thinking. So very many people cling to what their pastors tell them to think, or what Rush says on the radio. It is very distressing and I’m trying to come up with words to describe it. Maybe one day the words will come to me.
Hi Uncle Al, I hope we have advanced at least a bit past where the Romans ended. No more Goths, just dittoheads.
I found a supplier of 12 gauge #4 lead buckshot for you-
http://www.ableammo.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=89135
25 Rounds for $10.45. Ten or more boxes for $9.93. So you could pick up ~60 boxes of 25 rounds with the refund.
I for one am going to invest in a GM counter.
“8^>) Copper-plated lead magnum #4 Buck for my Mossberg. Easy on the choke for wide dispersion at close range.
Themes of stagnation, morbidity, despair, decay, helplessness… are gifts of aging Western Baby Boomers. There is big money to be had in depression, sorrow, and doom. Throughout history vigorous societies are aggressive, sexual, and murderous.
Chinese “one-child” policy plus ultrasound fetal sexing and abortion on demand created a ~15% excess of young males who cannot ever marry for lack of women.. One presumes there will be collective displeasure. Remember how well the US predicted USSR collapse and destruction of the Berlin Wall? That was small stuff.
Survival based upon electrical modalities is a poor bet. Power will fail, batteries will drain, generators need fuel – and advertise their presence. Humans are crappy motors; flush toilets won’t flush.
No taxes! At least not until regional strongmen appear. We already have organized crime and ethnic gangs trained for the part.