America Blames China for a Cyber Attack

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In the last two months, there is an ongoing governmental investigation trying to figure out the identity and the way someone was able to penetrate the governmental databases and get their hands on the credit card details, the bank and insurance records of about 4 million individuals, employed by the American government, in present days and in the past. Josh Ernest, the White House spokesperson, said that the assault was discovered thanks to the installation of a new data security system, exposing that the source of the attack was in China. He added that since the attack was discovered, the plans designated to deter hackers from future cyber-attacks, which are under different development levels, were accelerated.

The allegedly Chinese attack is the last one out of a series of attacks, which involved both Chinese and Russian entities. This last case rose the question of the level of quality and efficiency of the US defense system from cyber-attacks. Lindsey Graham, a Republican candidate for presidency during the next election, expressed his concern from “Cyber Pearl Harbor” in case the necessary resources will not be used to develop the proper defense against hacker attacks. Ernest responded to these concerns and said that this issue occupies President Obama, who guided his counter terrorism advisor to grant priority to this issue. Moreover, the president appointed an employee responsible for dealing with this issue. Another prevention measure is the founding of a team of computer experts by the Homeland Security department, which participates in the interrogation of the last attack. Ernest also said that the president works relentlessly in order to cope with the cyber threats on his country, and last year he established the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, in addition to a proposal to enforce the cyber security of the USA, which was denied by the congress.

The break into the federal databases was apparently done during last December, before the installation of the new protection system in April. The break-in was only discovered one month later, in May. As mentioned above, the blame was pointed directly at China, which has already performed a few cyber-attacks in the past, according to the United States. China rejects the accusations against it arguing that they lack all basis. Moreover, the Chinese argue that they were a target of cyber-attacks themselves, and this makes them aware of the great difficulty to figure out who stands behind them, and testify, that sometimes, it is impossible. Furthermore, parties in the American government, who are proficient in cyber, point to Iran and Russia, in addition to China, as states who have the ability to perform cyber-attacks of this kind.