Rise of China: The Cyber Dragon

A recent cyber-attack on the gas industry in the United States may have the fingerprints of the China on it.

 Cyber-attacks have grown in prominence over recent years and will likely become an increased focus of national security experts in the coming years and decades.

The type of cyber-attack carried out against our gas industry would need the resources available to a national government. Though many governments may engage in cyber espionage, China has been particularly aggressive on the cyber front as articulated in Death by China by Peter W. Navarro and Greg Autry


China’s aggressive use of cyber-piracy coupled with their need to keep the vast engine of economic growth growing makes it a likely suspect.

 Cyber-crime is tricky by nature, however, because in cyberspace matters, governments have no real friends. Everyone spies on everyone else. The question is which entities serve to do us harm and which enemies are engaging in the practice of cyber-crime to give themselves a technological leg up?

 I don’t think China’s motives for engaging in cyber-crime are simply technological theft.