August 25th, 2005
Is China attacking military computers? Maybe not.
Earlier this week, FCW.com published a story claiming that the Chinese government was engaged in a cyberwar with the U.S. military. The article quoted former Army chief of staff Jack Keene: "The Chinese were doing this on a regular basis. That’s a given. They’re very aggressively getting capability. It’s common knowledge in the Pentagon."
On National Public Radio’s "Talk of the Nation" today, two China hands, Time’s Bill Powell and computer pioneer John Seeley Brown, questioned the assertion, saying that computers in China could have been hijacked by hackers operating anywhere in the world. There’s no evidence, they said, that the Chinese government, or even Chinese citizens, are involved. On the other hand, it’s "entirely plausible," said Powell.
