Well my heavens! Now the French are saying they’re being attacked in cyberspace. From Agence France-Presse:

French information systems fell prey to cyber attacks “involving China”, similar to those reported by the US, British and German governments, a top French security offical told AFP on Saturday.

“We have indications that our information systems were the object of attacks, like in the other countries,” the Secretary-General of National Defence (SGDN) Francis Delon said, confirming a report published in French newspaper Le Monde.

Mercifully Gallic sang-froid helps M. Delon keep some perspective:

“We have proof that there is involvement with China. But I am prudent. When I say China, this does not mean the Chinese government. We don’t have any indication now that it was done by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” he added.

Rather than rehash my cyberespionage argument again, here are my basic points:

- China (as an IP address block) is the most malware-ridden environment on the internet
- China (as an IP address block) has the largest known number of zombified computers on the internet
- Simply because an attack is traced to China, it doesn’t mean that it was initiated by the Chinese government or even Chinese hackers
- These reports all (with the honorable exception of M. Delon) are anonymously sourced
- None of the reports provide any evidence of an attack

All of which makes me skeptical of the assertion that China is training troops for a cyberblitzkreig. It’s not that I think that no one engages in cyberespionage. I am confident that any nation with the resources engages in cyberespionage, both on friends and putative foes.

What bothers me is the wholesale presumption of guilt and the assigning of blame. The credulousness of the media serves to whip up an anti-Chinese sentiment - to whose benefit remains unclear.

ps. My another-summit-another-spy-game theory is leaking water fast, no known summit between France and China on the horizon. Damn.

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