Ethics †Current Events Essay

The issue between the United States accusing China of hacking the Pentagon’s computer network is in a way a violation of the Data Protection Law and international law. For many years the Pentagon has been the subject of cyber intrusion and attempts to penetrate its most kept defense data which if this system will be intruded there would be a possible attempt for an international terrorism. Although the intrusion was only discovered recently according to the US Defense Department it was possible that China has been trying many ways and means to penetrate Pentagon’s database system. The problem here lies not only to the People’s Liberation Army which Pentagon was pointing but China’s Foreign Minister, Jiang Yu is denying the accusations saying his country has no part in the intrusion attempt to the Defense Department’s systems. Fortunately, the US defense system is equipped with the most advance military technology that could detect and tract such intrusion. The Pentagon greatly considers the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in staging such hacking although it did not disclose that Beijing which is China’s seat of Socialism is involved here. Although the US Department of Defense confirmed that the existence of such group could be a small group formed out of the PLA, its intention is anticipated in trying to get information using technological advances (Starr, Todd and Payne). But it is just obvious that even the most highly advanced technology could not stop an ever changing development of computer viruses, spywares and worms to mutate into a more advance and destructive programs. All of these are man-made and unfortunately those people on the other parts of the world are trying to take advantage and could developed these into more powerful and persistent programs so they can merge themselves to the existing programs for destructive purposes. Not only the US is grieving about such violation of international law but even London as well who holds the same position as a powerful country is confirming such an intrusion. Although at this time China is showing its meekness with the present issues, no one can really tell if this is the result of a shadowing another Cold War between the two large countries. The US cannot totally eliminate espionage on its defense system and has a rich history in violation of its secret information. But what causes other personalities or even countries to have an interest to gather information from the US is still unfathomable to the ordinary people. China with its olden years of co-habiting principles with the old Russia has not totally erased its personality as a communist country. Indeed it has grown in terms of its economy because of the free trade but many believe that this was just superficial because China was trying secretly to be another growing superpower in the making. In terms of manpower and number of armies indeed China has not lost its capability to be an independent country. President Bush still wanted to play it safe and could not directly convict China of such intrusion. After all he is trying to build rapport to avoid another international issue that could destroy relationships between nations. On the contrary, the people in the White House are all aware of this issue and are not sleeping with two eyes closed. Fortunately, the incident only happened on the surface attacking the unclassified e-mail in the Defense department before it can penetrate the military’s database. The Pentagon had to shut down its unclassified e-mail for a few weeks although it is not networked to military network that contain confidentialities. No harm done so far and Pentagon officials said none of their operations were disrupted. Not only has Washington is confirming such an assault from the group but even the Britain’s Parliament and the Foreign Office has been hacked according to the Associated Press and Guardian newspaper of London. AP who is keen on making research involving China and international espionage has made a report that the day before the German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Beijing, the local newspaper Der Spiegel said they found Trojans (spy programs) at the Chancellery computer system. Everybody is not safe even to the extent of breaking laws and bypassing international boundaries. There are only countries that are only moving for their advantage notwithstanding privacy and securities. Indeed, the technology has made a great advancement with great leaps and development. It is only unfortunate that sometimes leaps and bounds are crossing the borders and surmounting other people’s space of confidentiality.