From

CNN

FBI probes for Chinese cyber spies

 From Terry Frieden CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The FBI and the Pentagon are investigating whether
Chinese spies have been hacking into U.S. government computer systems, U.S.
officials said Thursday.

Officials are trying to determine whether the continuing hacking efforts
are sponsored by Beijing or merely involve hackers using Chinese Web sites to
mask their origins, they said.

In recent years units in the FBI Cyber-crime Division, established to
combat computer intrusions, have seen hundreds of cases in which hackers using
Chinese Web sites have compromised unclassified official U.S. networks.

One U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified, said
government investigators had been involved for several years in “working this
problem.”

“You can’t just jump on a plane and go to China and start questioning
people,” another government official said.

The FBI declined to comment because of the sensitive nature of the
investigations.

Government officials acknowledge many of the attacked Web sites have been
unclassified Defense Department sites.

Several other agencies involved with national security, including the
departments of Energy and Homeland Security, also have been targeted, the
officials said.

The investigation into the hacking and the debate about the origin were
first reported by Federal Computer Week and The Washington Post.

A few years back I read an article that was predicting that during the next
world war one of the major battlefields would take place on the internet. Not
only is it a great source of information for those that know how to get it, but
it also puts a majority of our infrastructure in harms way. A simple virus that
could reek havoc on the entire country, shutting down servers and mainframes. It
could put the country in a state of total darkness and disable all
communications. We were the leader in the field of technology but now that most
of those jobs are being out sourced to Asia and India, we have put our self at a
more vulnerable state.