The Foreign Service Journal, June 2013

12 JUNE 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL China: Top Source of Cyberespionage W riting in the April 23 Washington Post , Craig Timberg summarizes Verizon’s latest Data Breach Investiga- tions Report. Issued every year since 2008, the study asserts that 96 percent of 120 incidents of governmental cyberes- pionage last year originated in Beijing. (The source of the other incidents is unknown.) Compiled by the company’s RISK Team and 19 partners, including federal officials and several foreign govern- ments, the report identifies 44 million compromised records from 621 con- firmed data breaches in 2012. Of those breaches, 19 percent were deemed to be the result of government-affiliated espionage. Retail institutions were the most common victims, with profit- minded hackers most often based in Romania, the United States, Bulgaria or Russia. Timberg reports that the sheer volume of Chinese cyberintrusions has made identifying them easier, with telltale sections of code sometimes appearing across different pieces of malicious software. But the Verizon team did not treat the fact that an intrusion emanated from an Internet address in the PRC as sufficient evi- dence. Instead, they named China only when they could definitively trace the malicious code or tactics used in the attack. Though the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to queries about the Verizon report, Timberg notes that Chinese officials have consistently denied allegations that their government is a leading source of cyberespionage. However, these latest findings track closely with the National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus document of U.S. intelligence agencies, and build on numerous other reports singling out the People’s Republic of China as “uncom- monly aggressive in cyberspace.” —Steven Alan Honley, Editor The Rise of the Global South T he impressive economic rise of the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—has attracted a lot of attention. But the new 2013 Human Development Report, titled “Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World,” cautions that this is not the full story. The United Nations Development Program report, published in March, agrees that many countries that are part of the so-called “Global South” (a group of 40 developing countries) have been enjoying substan- tial growth despite the economic crisis of the last several years. Although the largest developing economies were the main contributors to the phenomenon, Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda and Tunisia have also made rapid progress. As the Global North has stagnated, production rebalancing on a scale not seen for 150 years is well under way. China recently surpassed Japan to become the second-largest economy, while India and Brazil are set to overtake all of the European economies except Germany later this decade. In response to this economic shift, the UNDP is calling for far greater representation of the South in global governance systems, including the World Bank, the Inter- SITE OF THE MONTH: www.globalnewsdashboard.com B reaking international news gathered by one of the world’s most exten- sive networks of journalists can now be found in one place, thanks to a new online initiative by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Global News Dashboard pulls together the English-language news generated by the BBG’s 50-plus bureaus, production centers and offices, which are supported by staff journalists and more than 1,500 stringers across the globe. Visitors can search the site by region, network or type of media, and are then directed to the original content on the sites of the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. The Dashboard also offers links to original Spanish-language broadcasts from Radio/TV Martí, and the Arabic- language online offerings of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Previously, anyone interested in these broadcasts would have had to visit the Web sites of five separate broadcasters. This tool, built on the Pangea con- tent management system developed by RFE/RL and used by the majority of the BBG’s broadcasters to power their Web sites, makes that search easier. —Steven Alan Honley, Editor