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Case 1 Cyberespionage: The Chinese Threat
1. What are cyberespionage groups stealing from the United States?
All kinds of intellectual property such as research and development results, business plans, designs of software and machinery, software, and other products of the mind (intellectual property).
2. What does the video claim is the evidence these attacks are coming from China? Is this believable?
The ISPs and the URLs of the attackers are located in Asia. However, it is possible that Asian computers are compromised and are being used by others actually located in Europe, or other nations. Nevertheless, it is difficult to dismiss the opinions of so many experts that the attacks are coming from China.
3. What does Adam Siegel in the video claim is the motivation of the Chinese government for conducting cyberespionage against the United States?
Siegel claims the Chinese do not want to be dependent on the West for technologies, and they fear falling behind the West, which in turn might slow their economic growth. China wants to move from “made in China” to “Created in China.”
4. Why didn’t Nortel management take the Chinese threat seriously? Why do various contributors in the video claim that American management does not take the problem seriously?
The video is unclear about this question. Senior Nortel management may have been more focused on near term business difficulties rather than cyber threats that did not seem immediately related to their business performance.
5. The video claims the attacks on American corporate and military computer systems are increasingly sophisticated. Do you believe this is true?
The attacks are overwhelmingly simple rather than complex. The most common vector of attack is through phony emails or Web sites that employees are lured into clicking on. Once clicked, the malware finds places to hide in ordinary software like Microsoft Internet Explorer or Excel spreadsheets. The malware will have access to the same information as the legitimate user of the machine. The tools available for creating and using this malware is readily available on the Internet.
6. Industrial espionage is a kind of technology transfer. The video claims the very DNA of Google is being drained by China, and that the U.S. will lose its competitive advantages with respect to China. Do you agree or disagree? Why? How else is technology transferred? Is it possible to stop technology transfer of any kind?