(Swollib)
While such incidents are becoming increasingly frequent, their impact on the lives of American's has not weakened. 750,000 employees, 2.9 million customers. This is the amount of people whose data, including Social Security Numbers of employees, as well as addresses, phone numbers and more from customers, was compromised in a recent breach. While research by FBI is currently ongoing, it is already speculated that, like in other recent attacks, hackers from the Chinese government are prime suspects. While none of the data has been used for identity theft of credit card fraud, little is known as to why the USPS would be a target of foreign government agencies, however this information could potentially useful to aid in counterintelligence or on the ground operations. This attack comes, ironically, at the time of Obama's visit to Beijing in response to China's growing economic and military prowess. It would seem a highly relevant topic for Mr. Obama in his talks with China's President Xi Jinping would be cyber-security. However Chinese officials still claim no involvement in any such acts. While intelligence operations are carried out all over by many country's -- including the US -- it often seems that China is one of the only perpetrators to be caught. As such, the US has sometimes been labeled hypocrites when it comes to these issues.
Is the US being hypocritical in condemning such attacks?
What should Obama's next move be in regards to relationships with China?
This one requires some heavy speculation, regardless; do you think there is any link between Obama's visit to Beijing and the attacks?
1 comment:
Sure, but also not really. The US created and used one of the first real cyber weapons when it targeted Iran's Nuclear program with Stuxnet, both the US and China would condemn any hacking attacks they found. It's the game that countries play called "It's okay when we do it."
This isn't likely top change the general US approach to China. It's not like this is a completely unheard of occurrence. People have known about Chinese hackers for years. It might call for a buff in security, but I can't see it changing the face of our foreign policy.
Post a Comment