My access to google (.cn and .com) are still intact, so the Chinese government has yet to retaliate against Google’s face-losing (for the government) accusation that the government sponsored a Spectre-like attack (for you Bond fans) on Google customer accounts (including, most recently revealed, several foreign journalists in Beijing). The Google gauntlet the multinational has thrown at the feet of China’s leadership has highlighted the concerns other multinationals have about their cyber-security. If Google’s email accounts can be hacked by a shadow organization in China, then certainly theirs can be, as well. At least, I hope that’s how their thinking goes. A recent poll showed that members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China (Beijing) stated, “we are concerned about the security of commercial correspondence, data and networks.”  The cyber-kerfuffle has also exacerbated a blow-back State-side, in which Chinese companies are increasingly under suspicion of being launch pads for cyber-attacks on American companies. Whether the Chinese government actually directed the attacks on Google accounts (as well as a score other American companies), the government must be increasingly cognizant of Newton’s Theory of Globalization: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (well, maybe it’s a corollary).

Though I do expect a rapprochement between Google and the Chinese government, I don’t expect the powers that be to end its cyber-intrusions into personal and commercial spaces. Companies based in China, then, should work into their IT controls frequent all-data back-ups to headquarters in their home countries. One never knows now when China-based systems might be compromised, and a blanket blackout Xinjiang-style might be placed on commercial hubs in China.

There may come a point when control becomes mightier than the Yuan.

Read more: Cyber attacks aimed at defense groups; US to increase scrutiny of China companies

Also see:

Googling Africa

Will China be In-grown or Grown-Up?

Broken Web

Are Your Employees Trustworthy?

Googleplexed

About Face the About Face

Protecting Copying Rights