Richard Clarke: All Major U.S. Firms Hacked By China 311
bdking writes "Former White House cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke says state-sanctioned Chinese hackers are stealing R&D from U.S. companies, threatening the long-term competitiveness of the nation. He said, 'The U.S. government is involved in espionage against other governments. There’s a big difference, however, between the kind of cyberespionage the United States government does and China. The U.S. government doesn’t hack its way into Airbus and give Airbus the secrets to Boeing [many believe that Chinese hackers gave Boeing secrets to Airbus]. We don’t hack our way into a Chinese computer company like Huawei and provide the secrets of Huawei technology to their American competitor Cisco. [He believes Microsoft, too, was a victim of a Chinese cyber con game.] We don’t do that. ... We hack our way into foreign governments and collect the information off their networks. The same kind of information a CIA agent in the old days would try to buy from a spy. ... Diplomatic, military stuff but not commercial competitor stuff.'"
Having worked for a few firms... (Score:5, Interesting)
Having worked for a few firms in the IT division, I can say this isn't surprising...at all. Between clueless management and the inability to grasp IT's value and contribution to a company, it'd have been news if they HADN'T been cracked wide open.
When you mix in outsourcing, the argument can almost be made that this is exactly what these firms WANT to happen.
What? (Score:5, Interesting)
Did he just admit that his government hacks into other governments computer systems to steal diplomatic and military secrets? Did obama not say that cyber warfare like that is testimount to an act of war? If it's not and its ok for them to do it why are they trying to get that uk civilian hacker Gary Mckinnon for doing the same thing to them and saying its wrong and illegal when he did it to them but not when they do it themselves?
Re:You don't say... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Economic Espionage (Score:5, Interesting)
We don't steal technological information from China because right now, they don't have anything we don't already have. We haven't been solidly behind another nation on that one since the mid 19th century. Tied, maybe; behind, no.
And in the mid-19th century, we didn't have the slightest qualm about using industrial espionage against British companies to give our domestic industry a leg up. And why should we, for that matter?
What a load of US-centic jingoism!
What about jet engines? You had to borrow them from Britain first and then needed Germans to build them in the US (Gerhard Neumann [wikipedia.org]). What about rockets? Same thing here (von Braun and his team [wikipedia.org]). Even such mundane things like butter production were revolutionized after the US learned about all the German technology after 1945.
I am sure there are some technological gems in some corners in China which are already superior to all US tech. And they get bigger and more numerous, not least because of an attitude like yours.
Re:Having worked for a few firms... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a professional bean counter. I think you're not only wrong about failing to see the bigger picture, I think you're way off on the value of IT.
IT doesn't drive product. It doesn't drive sales. It supports those functions, just as HR or Finance does. IT is not an asset... it is a cost center than maintains an asset.
Regardless of the role and scope of a team (such as IT), you set your targets for what you need and what you want, and then you try to get those things done with maximum bang for your buck. Sometimes that means reducing costs, sometimes that means increasing value -- it is management's call on how to maximize cost-benefit (which is what us bean counters help management do).
What some "big picture" guys (such as you make yourself out to be) miss is that the "big picture" is made up of little pieces, and if you want to affect the big picture, you need to affect the little pieces. The devil is in the details, and if you don't understand that, I don't think I'd want you in my org.
Re:US at it too (Score:4, Interesting)
US state Industrial espionage is certainly not new, but one would
be naive to imagine it would receive domestic press coverage.
Those of us that read French publications originating in France
know that the practice has been documented for many decades.
Wise up.
Re:You don't say... (Score:3, Interesting)
I am not claiming the US does not engage in this kind of behavior; they probably do, and for all I know they've been caught red-handed at it too. But this report is not proof of that, even if we were to take Wikipedia as a great source of anything to begin with.
Masterfully put.
In fact, there is no proof the US does not engage in this kind of behavior. Since the general presumption is that they do engage in these types of activities, to point out equivalent Chinese activities and call it "unlawful" or in someway try to take the high moral ground in regard to the issue is what we know of as hypocrisy.
Whether or not such activities are negative, as far as the human race is concerned, is questionable. Especially if you observe US and Chinese activities from a culturally relative (ie free of political motives) standpoint. Perhaps we can all agree that whatever conclusion governments may make regarding the issue of espionage, whether it be commercial in nature of not, is always based on some political motivation. In this case maybe the US wants more polarization of US citizens so they may (who knows) more easily identify who are the terrorists.
Re:You don't say... (Score:3, Interesting)
The U.S. government tapped phones of Japanese car makers to pass information to U.S. unions for bargaining. They stole manufacturing secrets from a German wind turbine company to give to a U.S. competitor. They stole data and passed on trade secrets to U.S. call phone companies.
This Richard Clarke is either incredibly naive or a bold liar. I would say the latter, since it seems to be a standard practice in Washington D.C.