How the Chinese are Winning the Cyberwar

CIQ Headlines

Is your company’s security as good as Google’s, Nasdaq’s or Lockheed’s?

Let’s all hope it’s better. Because all of the companies named above have admitted to being victims of cyber-espionage. Estimates revealed in congressional testimony suggest ninety-four percent of companies have been hacked. FBI Director Robert Mueller says that cyber-attacks will soon replace terrorism as the agency’s number-one concern.

So why aren’t we hearing about it?

Because all our major institutions—government, the news media, and business— continue to suffer from technology deficit disorder. Look at the Stop Online Piracy Act—the one Wikipedia protested by going dark. Lawmakers so fundamentally misunderstood the issues at stake in online piracy and privacy that they were forced to withdraw the bill.

As for the news media, I have already written more than my fair share about their fawning and sycophantic position towards Apple Computer, one that has mostly ignored everything from device flaws to (until recently) unconscionable labor practices.

Nor have business leaders educated themselves on technology—which is more and more the backbone of modern business. If CEOs tune in at all to their technological advisers, what they hear is the soundtrack of Charlie Brown’s teacher.

So while we rattle our sabers at Iran and North Korea, American companies continue to pay for research that Chinese companies are regularly hacking and stealing for free. We need to acknowledge that there is a different war, a modern war, being waged and won right under our noses.