Surprise, surprise, surprise! The Chinese are hacking our satellites!

Well, somebody did. Somebody in China. As Computerworld states:

The report does not directly accuse the Chinese government or its military of being behind the attacks. But it does note that the disruptions are consistent with Chinese military strategies that advocate the disabling of enemy space systems and ground-based satellite control systems, Bloomberg said.

China’s stated strategy in a conflict is to “compromise, disrupt, deny, degrade, deceive or destroy” U.S. space and computer systems, the report says, according to Bloomberg.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221257/Chinese_hackers_may_have_attacked_U.S._satellites

See the Bloomberg Businessweek article at http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-27/chinese-military-suspected-in-hacker-attacks-on-u-s-satellites.html. Of course, the Chinese government is shocked, shocked that anyone would think it was their doing:

Chinese officials long have denied any role in computer attacks.

The commission has “been collecting unproved stories to serve its purpose of vilifying China’s international image over the years,” said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, in a statement. China “never does anything that endangers other countries’ security interests.”

I am reminded of what a Chinese friend told me about doing business with Chinese: it doesn’t matter if a product kills someone, because those people aren’t Chinese. In fact I think of this any time anyone of any nationality feels their nation is exempt from morality because they’re *special*.

I’ve also read that the Koran specifically says you can lie to your enemy, but I haven’t read the Koran. Even the mere suspicion (the subtraction of trust) this brings devalues the credit of anything said in negotiations with Islamists. I’m afraid I’m thinking the same thing of Chinese leaders. Especially when they reassure me China “never does anything that endangers other countries’ security interests.” Uh-huh.