Researchers Trace Data Theft to China | Hacker News Reader

Researchers Trace Data Theft to China

nytimes.com

19 pointstokenadult6 comments

"The Toronto spy hunters not only learned what kinds of material had been stolen, but were able to see some of the documents, including classified assessments about security in several Indian states, and confidential embassy documents about India’s relationships in West Africa, Russia and the Middle East. The intruders breached the systems of independent analysts, taking reports on several Indian missile systems. They also obtained a year’s worth of the Dalai Lama’s personal e-mail messages."

It's interesting that this particular data stealing operation was directed mostly at India. Strategically important information is to be found all over the world.

India is the largest regional threat to China, and the two countries have squared off before (and are likely to in the future) over small, disputed patches of land. In many area's India is China's biggest threat, especially economically, both countries are competing for the same type of foreign business.

Good points, and it goes beyond that - (disclaimer: I'm an Indian, so I might be biased) India is not just economically and strategically, but also ideologically a threat to China. We have a working democracy (though by no means perfect), and the growth rate (around ~7.5%, opposed to China's 10%) is real, as opposed to China's famous dodgy math when it comes to economic issues. China is more likely to implode economically if political unrest (when it begins) gets out of hand - India has been dealing with that since ages, so there won't be any surprises. So in a way, though China is growing much faster and a more lucrative investment destination, India is much, much safer (our central bank, aka RBI, is extremely conservative and hawkish on economic issues - which is why we survived the global financial meltdown of last year).

Most of the Indian hackers (and they are few) prefer to work for the multinationals like Google, Yahoo etc. So only mediocre guys are working as security experts for Indian Defence. No wonder, every tom, dick and harry is able to hack into the NSA at will and get confidential information out.

I think its the mindset that security and IT is just a cost-center, in Big Government Bureaucracies. I'm sure that military personnel at GroundZero everywhere understand operational security, since their lives likely depend on it. Its just that, as usual, people behind desks, don't really appreciate what getting getting sunk by loose lips feels like.

Surprise!

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