06.13.13
The damaged cred of cyberwar shoeshine
Edward Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate “the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries”.
Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department in Washington, said it was not aware of the hacking claims and could not comment directly, but she rejected the idea that such an incident would represent double standards given recent US criticism of Chinese cyber attacks.
You would hate to be the officials having to respond to queries on US double-standards re the rules of proper cyberwar and cyber-spying. But it comes with the job now and they are all well compensated.
The US acts as if it is the exceptional nation in cyberspace. It reserves the right to criticize and lecture others on what constitutes proper conduct but reserves the right to do what it pleases because of its allegedly exceptional nature.
The US, you see, only wages cyberwar, or cyber-espionage, campaigns in defense of freedom and to keep Americans safe. No other nations do similar things. They only cyber-spy on us and probe the net infrastructure to cause damage and steal our wealth.
The country has been in a terrible position to talk terms in cyberspace ever since it started up a hot clandestine war on the Iranian nuclear program and subsequent related malware spilled over into other nations.
The Edward Snowden affair only underlines it.