Mutually assured hacking?

The NYT today reprises the ways in which Russia has launched cyber-attacks on its neighbors. In 2007, when Estonia annoyed its former master, Russian hackers commandeered computers around the world and brought its government servers down:

The computer screens of Estonians trying to do business with the government online were frozen, if they got anything at all. It was annoying, but by the standards of cyberwar, it was child’s play.

In August 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia, the cyberattacks grew more widespread. Georgians were denied online access to news, cash and air tickets. The Georgian government had to move its Internet activity to servers in Ukraine when its own servers locked up....

But here's the thing: 90 percent of the probes of American computer systems come from China ... and so do a lot of our computer chips. And of course we've done some probing of our own. A story very much worth reading. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford