trace many of the cyberattacks to people in Russia, China, and friends (whether or not they’re government supported). The best scam is one that you don’t recognize until it’s over. And the best cyberattacks are ones that are untraceable. If you see the beehive, you can run away from it – but if the bees are swarming and you don’t know where they’re coming from, you’re done for. When Uncle Sam doesn’t know who to blame, cyber villains Russia and/or China are convenient scapegoats for what could well be the work of cyberattacks that come from within America. When Uncle Sam doesn’t know who to blame, cyber villains Russia and/or China are convenient scapegoats for what could well be the work of cyberattacks that come from within America. The American media doesn’t need much convincing that the bad guys are over there... And given the ability of the average journalist, or the average person, to discern the quality of cyber sleuth evidence, it would be easy to convince any doubters. White supremacists and other domestic terrorists aren’t known for their triple-digit IQs. But it only takes a few black-hat hackers holed up in a Wi-Fi-enabled cave in (insert name of an off-the-radar flyover state that you can never remember the capital of ) with Internet access to wreak havoc. Could these attacks – on America – emanate from America? Possibly. Would we find out
the U.S. and a bevy of allies of being behind an attack on e-mail software Microsoft Exchange, through which it stole e-mails, calendar data, files, contacts, and pretty much any other data that tens of thousands of businesses sent via Exchange. All that data adds up. According to one estimate, China has much of the personal data on four of every five Americans... and it’s working on the last guy. How is China going to use all this data? First, there’s the obvious and easy way: The Chinese government could use all it knows about you – yes, you... or, say, a person in a sensitive government, technology, or intelligence position who you might know – to get you to talk about whatever it believes you know and it wants to know. But that’s child’s play. The bigger picture is more scary, as National Public Radio explains... [U.S.] officials believe the Chinese gather this information to help them construct the informational mosaic they need to build world- class AI [artificial intelligence]... [which is] becoming the mechanism by which insurance rates are calculated, credit is given, mortgages are approved, and health care data is calculated. How will that affect you? Now’s the time to shudder... CYBERWAR ENEMY NO. 3: NO, IT COULDN’T BE America’s intelligence folk – who fancy themselves to be mighty intelligent – can
American Consequences
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