Can We Really Assume?

The recent New York Times article "Russians Revealed Among Ukraine Fighters" By Andrew Roth and Sabrina Tavernise Documents the involvement of Russian nationals in the fighting in Crimea. Chechens were spotted on Tuesday providing security for wounded rebels at a local hospital in Crimea. At least eight of the wounded men receiving treatment at the hospital had Russian passports. While whether these Russian nationals are on unofficial orders from Moscow to aid in the skirmishes in Crimea is still questionable, the increasing visibility of the participating Russian fighters in not. Among the rebels resisting the Ukrainian army, the presence of veterans of the Chechen wars of the late 1990s and soldiers of fortune of other ethics backgrounds is an increasing occurrence.

Although Moscow has denied that any of it's regular army personal has any involvement with this conflict, some experts believe that these Russian nationals would not actively defy the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Is this really something that can be presumed wholeheartedly? Can we really assume that the will of president Putin is this powerful? That if Putin truly did not want any Russian involvement in the actual conflict fighting that every soldier of fortune of Russian heritage or allegiance would cross that potential paycheck right off their "to do" list? Is there some untold regulatory body that watches all of these Russian patriots and sell-swords to confirm they are not embarrassing the motherland? Is the scorn of the Russian Government really enough to dissuade the anonymous mercenary from the practicing of tradecraft given the opportunity? Surely there must be a faction that would rather collect income than nationalist praise.

Another noteworthy fact is that people of similar theology and ideology tend to band together when they feel persecuted by a hostile force. Not to credit or discredit the accusations of persecution of Russian cultured people by the Ukrainian government and armed forces, but if a sect of people feel their brethren are being exploited or oppressed by a larger faction they tend to come out in droves to provided support. What better support can these Chechen war veterans provided then armed protection and insurgency? It is what they have experience with after all. If the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have taught us anything it should be that an official mandate is not required to cross an international border and join in the armed conflict to shed the blood of thy neighbor's enemy.

What Do You Expect?

In a recent New York Times article, " Some Privacy, Please? Facebook, Under Pressure, Gets the Message" by Vindu Goel, The privacy of information posted by Facebook users is examined. Face book has been around for over ten years now, and they are just now starting to become privacy conscience. Facebook has started to revamp their privacy settings, first by making posts by new user viewable only by friends as a default. This action seems tardy by about 10 years in my opinion, to think that by default anything you post is viewable by anyone seems ludicrous to me. This preposterous fact can only be outdone by the consumer service representative Facebook has chosen, a cartoon dinosaur, to walk its existing users through their existing account privacy settings.

Is it too much to assume that in the past when making a new Facebook account privacy should be expected? That if one should choose to post something to Facebook, its ability to be seen by the entire world would not be by default but by intended selection by the user. Also, that if one would choose to make these postings private it should not take an afternoon and an associate degree in computer science to successfully setup all the privacy setting associated with a single Facebook account. Now this may seem strange to you to expect privacy in social media, granted they seemed to be opposing theologies. However, just because one may wish to share some things to anyone some of the time does not mean everyone should share everything to anyone all of the time. The only thing I find more insulting than Facebook's lake of respect for a person's privacy is their obviously demeaning choice of privacy mascot. It's as if Mark Zuckerberg is saying your too feeble minded to handle these privacy setting yourself so our cartoon dinosaur will come hold your hand and walk you through it all, there will be milk and cookies along the way and when we're done he'll put you down for your nap.

I may be biased when it comes to these things, I enjoy an unplug life off the grid. I find there are few occurrences I want to share with my friends much less the entire world. However, there are people who would disagree with me. If Facebook is your outlet of expression far be it from me to dissuade you from posting your life to the internet, just don't be surprised when the information you so joyously pasted upon the internet wall is not as private as you may like it to be.

Cyber Warfare or Cyber Theft?

A Recent NY times article, "U.S. Case Offers Glimpse Into China's Hacker Army" by Edward Wong chronicles recent cyber attacks by seemly china based hackers. The basis for this story comes from the recent indictments of 5 Chinese citizens by the United States Justice Department this week for cyber attacks against "prominent American companies." The Justice Department named 5 Chinese men in the indictment as be part of a Chinese military unit specialized in cyber warfare. The Indictments claim this Chinese military unit and specifically these 5 men named in the indictment have actively hacked or sought to hack American companies to presumably steal industry secrets for the benefit of Chinese corporate gain.

 

These cyber assailants are not vilified at home in china as they would be in the United States mind you, they are praised from their dubious actions. In a culture in which the ethics involved in reaching the end goal are trivial, and the only benchmark for success is the marketable end product, these individuals thrive. They are not considered criminals in China but contractors providing a service to those willing to employ them, to which there is no shortage of employers. They receive their technical training from Chinese state funded and operated universities, and when they have acquired the technically skills required the state is more then willing to deploy them in cyber combat against state enemies.  However, when the cyber combat campaign against foreign enemy states ebbs the efforts of these cyber assailants are targeted at foreign corporations and academic targets of opposing view.

 

When the cyber attacks come in the form of assaults upon foreign intelligence and infrastructure targets, the assaults can be in a way justified. Even the Obama administration declares such attacks orchestrated in the guise of national security as "fair play" and legal. However, when the target is a foreign corporation with the sole objective of acquiring commercial trade secrets and other privileged information with the intent of divulging this information to Chinese competitors it boils down to flat out theft. If a thief in the night physically broke into an establishment and stole potentially millions if not billions of dollars, there would not be a debate upon the legality of the action. It would be categorized as the obvious larceny that it is and handled swiftly and judicially. This is not action taken to ensure the national security of China by any stretch of the imagination. It is obvious theft on a grand scale and should not be condoned by a world power of such magnitude.

 

Unfortunately the Chinese government likely does not share my vehement interpretation of these events. Though sponsorship or involvement of the Chinese government in these event is and will likely remain unclear. One thing is surely clear, These criminals will likely not be punished for their crimes. They will likely be praised on yet another successful venture completed and assigned a new target to larceny. One thing is for sure, Beijing will not be detaining these men and if they did extradition to face this U.S. Justice Dept. Indictment is out of the question. We have a better chance perfecting cold fusion or something less likely, seeing an end to Chinese cyber warfare.