by Tim Stevens
While the U.S. military remains mired in the ground conflict in Iraq, the Chinese military seems to be practicing for a war of the future. Earlier this year, reports surfaced about the Communist nation's testing of anti-satellite weapon technology. Now, reports are coming in that say the country has been implicated in a June hacking of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' work computer. This has spurred Pentagon IT folks to actually disable agency's network for more than a week while a fix can be determined.
An unnamed U.S. official has stated with a "very high level of confidence" that it was the People's Liberation Army (a.k.a. the Chinese military) behind the attack. For its part, the Chinese foreign ministry has said the government forbids "any criminal acts undermining computer systems, including hacking," and that "hacking is a global issue and China is frequently a victim."
Who is telling the truth? In the long run, it doesn't matter, because between this and the recent accusations of a Kremlin-funded cyber attack on Estonia, it's looking more and more like the next world war may very well take place over the Internet.
Original Source