Last
week in DC was FOSE, the annual government technology conference that covers a
broad range of topics from cloud computing and cybersecurity to emerging
technologies. Held jointly with GovSec,
these two events prove to be a wealth of information for anyone in the IT
industry. Held over three days usually
at the Washington Convention Center, the conferences represent a great (and
mostly free) opportunity to listen to IT leaders in both government and
commercial sectors. In addition to the
lectures, I always try to attend if for nothing else to preview new technologies. GovSec represents a forum where vendors often
release their latest physical and technical security solutions.
The opening speaker for the conference was Thomas Donilon,
former National Security Advisor for President Obama. Donilon’s keynote address was aptly titled
America’s Foreign, Defense, and Cyber Policy: An Insider’s Perspective. Although this subject represents a suitable
topic at any point in our current events, it was especially timely given just
one week later the U.S. Justice Department indicted five members of the Chinese
military for hacking (CNN, 2014). The
targets included American companies Alcoa, Westinghouse and U.S. Steel Corps
just to name a few. This incident is
momentous in that for the first time, the United States is almost directly
accusing the Chinese government of engaging in cyberespionage. I say “almost” because given the sensitive
geopolitical ramifications of this accusation, the Justice Department stopped
short of indicting the entire Chinese military or government and instead
singled out five individuals working for the Peoples Liberation Army
(PLA). So where does this leave the
United States? Unsurprisingly, the
indictment appears to have had limited effect thus far. True to form, the Chinese government
vehemently denies the claims and characterizes the charges as “extremely
absurd.” It’s unclear what the Justice
Department hoped to accomplish with this maneuver. After all, it was only a year ago that
Mandiant released their report on APT 1, in which they were able to identify a
Chinese military unit in China responsible for similar cyberattacks against
U.S. commercial and government entities.
Just like the most recent incident, China also denied their involvement
and similarly nothing happened.
References
Fantz, A. (2014). Chinese hackers infiltrated U.S. companies,
attorney general says. CNN.
Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/19/justice/china-hacking-charges/
