Shanghai Scrap

I’m seriously under the weather these last few days and so blogging has come to a bit of a standstill. However, I can’t help but notice that Chinese computer hackers are suddenly back in the news. Yesterday they hacked Iranian sites in retaliation for an Iranian hack on the baidu search engine; and then, today, google announces that Chinese-originated hacks  are a significant part of the reason that “we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.”

In April 2009 my friend Mara Hvistendahl wrote a fascinating article on China’s “patriotic hackers” for Popular Science that I’d recommend as a very good tutorial – and possible corrective – on who hacks, and why, in China. Concurrent with the publication of that story, I conducted an email interview with Mara exploring some of the issues she touches upon in the article, and bringing out some details that she didn’t. I think it’s one of the better posts I’ve written in the last year, and you can find it here.

Back in a few days.