Cyber-Espionage

One forgets that there are now more than one or two ways to fight a war. The violence of brutal attacks still likely, but far less up close where two armies clash in hand-to-hand combat; that age-old convention went the way of the Dodo with the invention of space-age technological implements of war that could send nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles halfway across the world to do their damage at a remote. Damage far deeper and wider than mere armoured troops could inflict on one another.

Of course there is also something called mutual assured deterrence. It works, indubitably, when disparate regimes and the war elite on either side are of normal intelligence, not invested with an feverish end-of-days ideology that welcomes mass destruction, heralding the Apocalypse. Whose purpose is to elevate the fanatic believers into Paradise, while launching the mass of the infidel hordes into an endless pit of fire and torture they will never escape.

There are other avenues of choice for those who may be diabolically bright enough to figure out how to spread chemical and bacterial agents in a large enough sphere to destroy effectively. Up until now, these dread agents have been incorrigibly intransigent, turning dramatically upon those who have sought to effectively manipulate them, teaching a horrible lesson of humility and agonizing death.

But there are more sophisticated, more technically and technologically advanced methods emerging and increasingly available. Human ingenuity knows no bounds, and when those brilliant minds invested with the excitement and intrigue of sinister experimentation become adept enough at manipulating electronic signals violating Internet security, they become able to expedite the physical, economic and social collapse of a nation.

It starts with the loss of cyber-security, with computer-literate minds successfully breaching government institutions and universal corporate interests and military contracts and protocols, to bypass the expense involved in creation and formulation of advanced technologies. Targets such as countries' resource management, communications, strategies of defence can fall victim to clever cyberspace incursions.

"State-sponsored espionage against Canada is being conducted at levels equal to, or greater than, those witnessed during the Cold War. CSIS is aware that certain foreign agencies are conducting intelligence operations within Canada", Richard Fadden, head of CSIS stated again, publicly. "Foreign interference is also of concern."

Why would it not be? Biotechnology, aerospace, advanced communication, all present as enticing subjects for espionage purposes. It's not as though there's anything particularly new about all of this; foreign spies have always infiltrated countries' defences, attempting to achieve covert victories in the acquiring of formulae, data, designs and plans that would benefit them.

China in particular is well known to have targeted both Canada and the United States. Its success in accessing Pentagon sites enabled China to produce a technologically-advanced fighter plane remarkably like America's latest designs. To the chagrin of the U.S. administration and the State Department; to the unapologetic glee of Beijing, which of course denies any such espionage on their part.

Confidential government reports, diplomatic dispatches, asset searches, are all fodder for the omnivorous appetite of foreign governments seeking advantage. The 'foreign interference' which Mr. Fadden mentions relates to the pressures placed upon expatriate communities within Canada, of ethnic and religious groups who still respond to the call of their cultural and social-ethnic homeland.

The common enemy that afflicts most societies and countries on the Planet at this time in history has not been forgotten by CSIS, since violent Islamist jihad continues to represent the main threat to our universal well being. Al-Qaeda "remains the most lethal terrorist movement in the world", concerning our security agencies with the nightmare scenarios of plots we cannot even conceive of.

This is terrorism doing its job.