International Relations Fallout of Google Breach
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The fallout from Google’s announcement last week about their business in China continued on Thursday in a major policy address by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a wide ranging speech in Washington, D.C. the Secretary again demanded the Chinese authorities conduct a full and transparent investigation of the cyber attacks outlined by Google.
Some analysts have called these attacks and their aftermath a day of reckoning; others a watershed in the development of a secure Internet. It may be one or both of those things, but my own belief is that it is also the day when the world finally grew up relative to the data breach phenomenon. Moving forward the world will come to understand that the Internet is not an inherently safe environment into which cyberattacks occasionally intrude.
Because the internet itself is a community much like that of a developing country, all shared data is at risk. While this observation is true even in a developed society, the Internet does not come with security, rule of law, or other infrastructure to ensure that “responsible” behavior is the norm. Those that share their information and data on the Internet truly do so at their own risk. The recent events highlighted by Google only demonsrates the magnitude and consequences of those risks.
These events also prove that the Internet has become an inherently unsafe environment in which cyberattacks are the norm. To prevent these attacks from rendering the Internet useless for commerce and communications will require an unprecedented level of vigilance and willingness to engage nation states at the highest levels as Secretary Clinton has done.
I thought Mrs. Clinton summed up what is at stake here quite eloquently when she stated:
“Ultimately, this issue isn’t just about information freedom; it’s about what kind of world we’re going to inhabit. It’s about whether we live on a planet with one internet, one global community, and a common body of knowledge that unites and benefits us all. Or a fragmented planet in which access to information and opportunity is dependent on where you live and the whims of censors.”
When current foreign policy includes dialogue and diplomacy about the impact of data breaches, it’s undeniable that data security (or the more correctly, the lack thereof) has ceased to be under the sole purview of cybercriminals and information security officers.They have become an integral part of the fabric of international relations. My advice is that we all become accustomed to this. It IS the new normal.