Misha Glenny on Cyberwar and China

This is one of those times that the headline and standfirst say more than the article itself:

In America’s new cyberwar Google is on the front line: The internet giant’s clash with China shows how the global power struggle has switched from tanks to computer systems, Misha Glenny, Comment is Free, 18 January 2009

The point of Glenny’s op-ed was not, as the usual barking-mad commenters make out, that all Chinese are evil. I think he was trying to make the point that information is power, and information warfare is a form of conflict which blurs the boundaries like no other. In this case, Google is both a power-broker in its own right, and a pawn in the ‘new’ cyberwar between the US and everyone else. The piece prefers to rehash cybergeddon tropes than pursue that line of argument but I suspect he’s coming up to speed a bit with this subject. He makes a few odd statements but finishes with this:

There are few rules in this brand new sector of security and warfare. Anybody launching attacks has the ability to disguise their origin,so the potential for double and triple bluff is endless. One security analyst described this chaotic scramble to me as “like playing a seven-dimensional game of chess in which you’re never sure who the opponent is at any one time”. Let the games begin.

And one of the commenters replies:

It’s nice to read about this, but is it really a 7-dimensional game of chess when the British government refuses to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 …?

Natch.