COMING SOON TO A COMPUTER NEAR YOU – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  "Cyberattack" is the term, and we've been warned by computer experts to expect that term to come up more and more in the future.  There has apparently been a major cyberattack, being reported today.  From Fox:

The world's most extensive case of cyber-espionage, including attacks on U.S. government and U.N. computers, is set to be revealed Wednesday by online security firm McAfee, and analysts are speculating that China is behind the attacks.

The spying was dubbed "Operation Shady RAT," or "remote access tool" by McAfee -- and it led to a massive loss of information that poses a huge economic threat, wrote vice president of threat research Dmitri Alperovitch

"What is happening to all this data — by now reaching petabytes as a whole — is still largely an open question," Alperovitch wrote on a blog detailing the threat. "However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation (due to having stolen the other team’s playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat."

Analysts told The Washington Post that the finger of blame for the infiltration of the 72 networks -- 49 of them in the U.S. -- points firmly in the direction of China.

COMMENT:  Now it is true that McAfee, which sells anti-hacking and anti-virus software, has a commercial interest in alarming stories like this, but I doubt they'd publish something of this size, and with this detail, without firm factual backing.  It's a respected company with good credibility. 

China has been the master of the cyberattack, with profound implications for our national defense, and our economic infrastructure.  This country now runs on computers.  They are vulnerable to cyberattacks, and to electromagnetic pulse attack – a nuclear weapon exploded high above the United States, which, because of the electric energy produced, could wreck a good number of our unprotected computers.

I wonder how the budget for this new kind of war will fare in today's environment.

August 3, 2011