How Close is the US to Experiencing a Digital Pearl Harbor?

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of Flickr

  

December 7, 1941:  “A date which will live in infamy.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Who can ever forget President Roosevelt’s utterance of those fateful words that propelled the United States headlong into World War II?  The Japanese sneak attack that spurred our reluctant country into jo

ining the expanding European and Asian conflict 73 years ago is not forgotten.  However, what has been lost during the intervening decades is that the US had actually known, through a series of intercepted and decoded diplomatic communiqués, that a Japanese attack was imminent. Yet the administration did little to take defensive action.

Chinese Hack Attack!

English: Air Force Flag of the People's Republic of China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Carl Weiss

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Internet, a news story breaks about how foreign governments are now hacking us companies, even going after their employee's computers.  This time it wasn’t inspired by teenage pranksters on the prowl.  Nor was it the Russian mob trying to break into financial institutions once again.  No, this time the culprits were state-sponsored hackers who wore military uniforms and lived in military barracks.  What I’m talking about is the latest hack attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which came to light to the nation at large on Monday, March 11, when Tom Donilon, President Obama’s national security adviser stated in a speech in New York City: 

“Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyberintrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale. The international community cannot tolerate such activity from any country.” (Click here to read the slate.com blog.)