The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Hackers 1, China 0
by James Dunnigan
July 5, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Hackers, apparently Chinese, worked their way into the
website of a Chinese government Internet security firm, and defaced the company
web page. This caused some embarrassment, although the company, Beijing General
Security Service, was not noted for Internet security, but for hiring and
supervising 4,000 "internet security guards" to monitor what Internet
users in the Chinese capital do online. While much message traffic on message
boards and in chat rooms is monitored with software (often from American
suppliers), human monitors are needed to go after "subversive
citizens" who might be speaking in code. China is making a determined
effort to prevent the Internet from becoming an uncontrolled source of
information the government does not approve of.
Police states, like China, have a serious problem with the
Internet. They need it, for economic reasons. The Internet has become part of
the worldwide economic infrastructure. But the Internet also allows unfettered
exchange of information. For a police state, this is bad. A police state
remains in power, in part, by controlling the media. China has a booming
economy, and cannot afford to lock down, or keep out, the Internet, as has
happened in police states with poor economies (North Korea, Cuba, Burma). So
China is adding more software, and personnel, to police Chinese Internet users.
So far, their approach has made many casual Internet users wary of saying, or
looking for, anything the government does not approve of. But millions of more
savvy Chinese Internet users know of ways to get around the “Great Firewall of
China,” to do as they wish on the Internet. This attack on the Beijing General
Security Service was just a reminder that the Chinese war on the Internet is
far from over.
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