14 DAY TRIAL // During the past week, the US made waves in the cyber-security sector by issuing two high-profile indictments against Chinese and Iranian nationals, accusing them of hacking for the purpose of stealing US jet fighter plans and damaging its financial and water supply infrastructure.
The first indictment was against a Chinese man living in Canada, an owner of a company in the aerospace industry, who conspired with two Chinese hackers to break into the IT systems of various US aerospace defense contractors and steal information about C-17, F-22, and F-35 airplanes.
While no official Chinese government representative has come forward to answer questions about the incident, ultra-nationalistic Chinese newspaper Global Times has actually lauded the actions of the two hackers and the Chinese businessman arrested in the US, Su Bin.
"We are willing to show our gratitude and respect for his [Su's] service to our country," AFP quotes and translates from Global Times. "On the secret battlefield without gunpowder, China needs special agents to gather secrets from the US."
Iran authorities deny anything to do with the actions of seven hackers
On the other hand, Iranian officials denied having any involvement with the seven hackers US prosecutors indicted this past Thursday.
The seven were accused of launching 176 DDoS attacks against 46 different US companies, and even hacking into the SCADA system of a small New York dam.
In its indictment, US' Attorney General said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hired the seven hackers to purposely launch the attacks against US companies.
In a statement released yesterday, Iran officials, besides denying all accusations, also reminded everyone that the US and Israel started this cyber-war to begin with when they released the Stuxnet virus.
"The United States, which with its cyber attacks against Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities put millions of innocent Iranians at the risk of a environmental disaster is in no position to accuse citizens of other countries, including those of Iran," the Iranian government said.
US' Iranian indictments are ludicrous
Additionally, the US is opening a can of worms with this indictment. As it stands right now, the hackers operated on behalf of the Iran military, just as many hackers operate today on behalf of the US.
Since the US is willing to go after individuals instead of blaming the government they worked for, this also means there's nothing stopping other countries from indicting US military personnel that were part of US' cyber-attacks.
By doing this, the US has engaged in a giant merry-go-round that sees regular foot soldiers bearing all the blame instead of the people whose orders they've followed.