Sometimes superpowers don’t get along any better in the virtual world than they do in the real world. During the past few years, the China and the United States have traded allegations of hacking, cyber-espionage and other malicious activity. And even when it is not foreign governments pointing the figure for diplomatic reasons, there are some in the research community more than willing to pick up the slack if the conclusion is suggested by the evidence.
The latest flap involved allegations that China Telecom re-routed massive amounts of Internet traffic, though researchers are quick to point out there is no evidence this was done purposefully. As a backdrop, the United States has spent the past two years touting cyber-security as a key piece of securing America. In 2009, President Barack Obama declared protecting the countrys digital infrastructure a "national security priority." But in the nearly three years he has been in office, there has been no respite in attacks. In fact, the Department of Defense has stated publicly that its networks are probed thousands of times per day. Cyber-security sometimes reads like a mix between a tech journal and a spy thriller. Here, eWEEK takes a look inside some of the major controversies that have touched the political and digital realms, from the United States to China and beyond. – …