Homework #4

In class we have learned about many different things.  A couple of the things we have learned about have been internet security and hackers.  I found an article from the New York Times called Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery written by Nicole Perlroth on February 10^th, 2012.  This article talks about Kenneth G. Lieberthal who is a China expert at the Brookings Institution.  Whenever he leaves the United States to go to China for business, he leaves his cell phone and laptop at home and takes “loaner” devices with him.  Before he leaves the United States, he erases the “loaner” devices and he does the same thing when he leaves China.  Lieberthal said, “the Chinese are very good at installing key-logging software on your laptop.”  When he goes to China, he never types in a password directly because of that.  This is now standard procedure for companies that do business in China and Russia.  In countries such as these, cyber theft is a common practice. The victims of these crimes hardly ever know that they are a victim because the hackers almost never leave a trace of the crime. The statistics of this crime are minimal because the targets rarely want to discuss them.  According to the article, formerly the top counterintelligence official in the office of the director of national intelligence, Joel F. Brenner said, “If a company has significant intellectual property that the Chinese and Russians are interested in, and you go over there with mobile devices, your devices will get penetrated.”  China and Russia now prohibit travelers from entering the country with encrypted devices unless they have permission from the government.