Joseph Menn

The Chinese have seized the high ground from the U.S. in the 21st century digital information war.  In fact, we may be in the middle of a new Cold War-style race — one based on technology and information instead of nuclear warheads and tanks.

The questions surrounding the issue of digital warfare are complex and multifaceted.  For example, who has assumed the dominant position when it comes to the ability to acquire, control and steal information?  How do we begin to develop an infrastructure to defend the most critical corporate and government secrets from prying eyes overseas — and if the Chinese are doing that, are we currently doing enough to stop them?

To get answers, Dylan spoke with Joseph Menn, Financial Times technology reporter and author of Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet.

So, what rules do the Chinese play by? “Beg, borrow or steal,” says Joe.  “The Chinese remain behind in intellectual property as a whole.  That’s military stuff, but that’s also commercial stuff.  A lot of what they’ve been doing over the last decade is finding various ways of getting western intellectual property.”

There seem to be huge disparities between how China approaches digital security and how the United States does.  “The one really big difference is that the Chinese government operations don’t have any concern whether they are going against a government entity in classic, old fashioned spying or an important U.S. corporation,” Joe explains.  “We’re playing by a different set of rules and that’s one of our disadvantages.”

Product development and innovation that happens in the U.S. can be lifted and be produced in China, without backlash from the government there.  “It’s not a coincidence that the tolerance for piracy there is so high.  The vast majority of copies of Windows in China are not paid for — there’s a reason why there’s not a massive crackdown on that.  It is part of the government’s plan,” says Joe.  “When China does eclipse the U.S. as a world power, it will be because of this — because of the massive unauthorized transfer of intellectual property.”