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The Huffington Post has a story of what must be seen as the height of absurdity. As part of the fallout from the recent indictments of 5 PLA cyber-spies, China is threatening to suspend cooperation on joint US-Chinese cyber-security efforts. What can the world's two biggest players in industrial espionage possibly be cooperating on?
The linked story notes that efforts so far have been largely ineffective. Is there anything the US could realistically do? An IP block sounds tempting, but VPNs render that largely ineffective. Fund open-source firewalls or "advanced persistent threat" filters or ...?
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The Official Colorado State Vegetable is now the "state legislator".
(Score: 2) by starcraftsicko on Tuesday May 20 2014, @08:40PM
Well, you are an AC. Why would I trust your analysis?
I presume that anyone accused of a crime that I did not see for myself is innocent... but I infer a probability of their guilt by their actions when accused and am willing to deduce guilt from facts if presented. I also know that US prosecutors are able to prove most of their cases at trial and settle even more by guilty plea. I also know that a portion of those convictions (both kinds) are false, but not anywhere close to half of them... so they're mostly right.
I believe that the prosecutors believe that the persons named are actually and provably guilty of the specific acts alleged. The domestic and international ramifications if they are completely false are substantial. Were the case(s) to go to trial, the US Government would be compelled by its own laws to disclose what they know about this and how they know it. The international press (and I'm talking European here) would swarm all over any abuse of process.
There is also the possibility that the allegations could be true, but that the actions of the hackers are not criminal. If a member of a foreign military undertakes a (spying) mission following lawful orders, their actions might represent an 'international incident' or an 'act of war'... or even 'lawful intelligence gathering'. This would represent an affirmative defence by the individuals accused and would implicate the Chinese government in doing things it denies... which may be an acceptable outcome from the US prosecutors perspective.
And either way it's hypocrisy. Which doesn't mean it isn't true. Or that it is.
This post was created with recycled electrons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 20 2014, @09:01PM
Yeah, the prosecutors may well believe in the guilt of the accused, but that doesn't mean that they base their assessment on accurate data. I would expect that the majority of evidence in a hacking case would be electronic data and here the problems start for me with figuring out what is going on. Would it be possible for let's say the NSA to spoof the data or even carry out an attack from compromised chinese computers? I believe that it is well within their capabilities. Do I think that the NSA or similar agency would be willing to do such a thing to fling dirt on the chinese and seemingly bring more legitimacy to their own programs? Yeah, I don't think that they for a second would consider that wrong. On the other hand, do I think that the chinese conduct industrial espionage? Well yes, I'm fairly convinced that they do such things quite routinely. My point is that in the current state of affairs it's impossible to find out the truth about such an allegation and for me agencies such as the NSA definitely brings reasonable doubt wether the accused are guilty.
What I find more interesting is that focus seems to be shifting from Russia to China in the propaganda, I mean news, that are served to the public.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @01:42AM
I wouldn't be so quick to trust the numbers, they are easily manipulated.
Sure 'on average' most people are guilty. But if want to target 1 innocent person unfairly, I only have to arrest say 10 or so real criminals. And with the largest number of prisoners in the world it would be easy to sneak a few through the cracks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 22 2014, @04:49PM
There is a chance an AC is not the US government or representing the US government, thus an AC is inherently more trustworthy :)
Today the sky is mostly white (might not apply to your location).
P.S. posting this as AC for added impact!