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from the i-love-industrial-espionage-in-the-morning dept.
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
"This is a serious threat to our national security. I mean, our economy depends on the ability to innovate. And if there's a dedicated nation state who's using its intelligence apparatus to steal day in and day out what we're trying to develop, that poses a serious threat to our country," [John Carlin, assistant attorney general for US National Security] told 60 Minutes.
One company cited in the report to suffer from the hands of Chinese espionage is American Superconductor, a software developer for wind turbines. The company once was turning over almost half a billion a year but almost went out of business after entering a contract with a government-owned Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, Sinovel.
Owner of American Superconductor, Daniel McGahn, discovered a version of its latest, unreleased software being used on a turbine in China. Despite doing everything possible to keep its source code off the internet it was discovered that the Chinese company turned one of McGahn's employees by offering him money, women and an apartment in return for the full operating code.
To make matters worse, when McGahn decided to sue Sinovel for $1.2bn (£840m) and hire a computer security firm to investigate the case, his firm claims the Chinese company hacked the company's system to see what course of legal action it was taking in order to get a leg-up in proceedings.
"Whenever there's a big lawsuit we'll see the Chinese government actually break into that company, break into the legal department and figure out what's going on behind the scenes so they can better deal with that lawsuit," said George Kurtz, co-founder of computer security company CrowdStrike.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 25 2016, @10:47AM
So, what is your point? Are you disputing the fact that the US government spies on - who, exactly? Anyone? If you use any digital means of communication, you're spied on. If you use the mail, you're spied on. If you work you're spied on. If you pay taxes, you're spied on. If you don't pay taxes, you're spied on. If you use a credit/debit card, you're spied on. If you live in a rain forest, with no obvious communication with civilization, you're spied on.
http://www.boredpanda.com/vanishing-tribes-before-they-pass-away-jimmy-nelson/ [boredpanda.com]
If you have a point to make, please do so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @05:30PM
The US government spies for US government interests. The Chinese government spies for Chinese corporate interests. These facts have been demonstrated time and again, as you have pointed out, but are incommensurate. One is usual state-actor spy craft, and the other is economic warfare.
My point is use logic, reasoning, and facts, not emotion and equivocation. We aren't liberal arts majors and we should not act like them.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 25 2016, @05:56PM
Yes, please take your own advice, and use logic. Our "representatives" in Washington are routinely bought and sold by CORPORATE interests. Our government has abdicated it's right to make treaties, handing that right off to CORPORATE interests. Government and corporate interests overlap so much, that it's impossible to say which interests are governmetn and which are corporate.
Are you aware of the vast military industrial complex that ultimately runs this nation? It's nigh impossilbe to separate the military from industry, or rather CORPORATE interests.
Logic says, if someone can make money by spying, government will be involved. Money, money, money - follow the money.
TFA itself insinuates that corporate interests and government interests are one and the same. If that were not so, why would the US government care about XYZ corporation being hacked by the Chinese government? They only care, because government sees XYZ as a member of the ruling clique. XYZ contributes huge amounts of money to one or more congress-critter's campaign funds, and that makes XYZ a VIP.