Chinese Hackers Had Unfettered Access To Nortel Networks For a Decade 178
An anonymous reader sends this quote from CBC News:
"Hackers based in China enjoyed widespread access to Nortel's computer network for nearly a decade, according to ... Brian Shields, a former Nortel employee who launched an internal investigation of the attacks, the Wall Street Journal reports [from behind a paywall]. ... Over the years, the hackers downloaded business plans, research and development reports, employee emails and other documents. According to the internal report, Nortel 'did nothing from a security standpoint' about the attacks."
link around the paywall (Score:5, Informative)
Re:With [not-]Friends like these... (Score:2, Informative)
Actually Social Security (which runs surpluses currently) own most of our federal debt, and China only owns 6~9% (I can't remember the exact low %).
Perhaps you should look into the facts not just repeat talking points.
The myth of the Chinese "calling in" their debts. (Score:5, Informative)
Foreigners own less than 30% of US Treasury bonds. China owns 30% of those foreign owned bonds. About 8% of US bonds in total. The bonds are for a fixed term. They are paid in US dollars, at a fixed interest. And the US Treasury must register and approve all buyers.
China cannot "call in their debt" early. That's not how bonds work. The only way for them to do... anything... with the bonds is to dump them on the open market. However, that would crash the price, and the US could simply buy back the bonds at less than their face value, saving money in the long term. Since the interest rate paid on bonds is about a low as it can get, it means demand is high and so the US is not in any way dependent on China buying new debt. In fact, China seems to be gradually selling out of US Treasuries, and the interest hasn't gone up. If China tried to dump its bonds, the market would scoop them up.
Since each bond is individually registered with the US Treasury, and is paid by the US Treasury, if China somehow tried to... do something... somehow... to blackmail the US over its debt, the US government could selectively default on Chinese owned bonds. This wouldn't spook the bond market much because of the narrow targeted US response, and the obvious dickishness of the Chinese in bring it on themselves. (In fact, under such circumstances it would probably settle the markets.)
Put simply, you cannot fuck with another country by buying their debt in a form they have absolute control over.
Anyone who says you can is lying to you in order to sell you something.