Blaming China

China is frequently blamed for cyber attacks on the U.S., although Chinese authorities complain that they are just as often victims. A new article in Foreign Policy offers a more nuanced portrait of the Chinese government's role.

"The hacking scene in China probably looks more like a few intelligence officers overseeing a jumble of talented -- and sometimes unruly -- patriotic hackers," it reports. "Mix together widespread youth nationalism with a highly wired population -- China now boasts the most Internet users in the world, with 384 million people online -- and out comes patriotic hacking."

"The fact that these hackers' interests overlap with Chinese policy does not mean they are working on behalf of Beijing," it adds. "It helps, however, that Beijing turns a blind eye to their attacks."

On the latter point, some U.S. cybersecurity experts would like the U.S. government to take a stronger stance toward countries that tolerate cyber attacks. "We talk to Russia and China about a lot of things, but we've never made this a big issue," noted Richard Clarke, a former White House cybersecurity adviser, during an appearance this week at the RSA conference in San Francisco.

His solution: an international treaty that would require national governments to crack down on hackers within their borders and cyber "arms control" that would acknowledge that governments have an incentive to use cyberspace to attack and spy on adversaries, but would limit the tools and techniques they could use. -- TL