Recently Google has decided to pull a part of its operations out of China, a country where its censorship has forced Google to block a majority of its context. Also after Google has withdrawn, it has been under a slew of cyber attacks and it has not been the only one. India, Russia, and U.S firms have had sensitive information or money stolen by what they are calling a “Shadow Network.” China has been accused of causing these attacks but nothing has been confirmed as China has fully denied these allegations. In a day where technology has become all powerful and all present, cyber warfare could be the new generation of wars.

Google has been in a frustrating struggle with the Chinese government these past few months. The censorship has become stricter than ever as new censorship laws are calling for harsher punishments. About14 different government agencies monitor and control the censorship, not only for Google, but for blogs, newspapers, and magazines. Since Google has pulled out its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, it has redirected it’s users to an uncensored search engine based in Hong Kong. This is a way to for Google to allow Chinese users unlimited information while being able to steer clear of criminal prosecution from the Chinese government.

Allowing Chinese internet users to use an uncensored site has enraged the Chinese government. A statement was released by an anonymous official “Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stop filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks.”

Google has not been the only victim of cyber attacks. American firms have had billions of dollars stolen by cyber thieves. A database located India that withholds sensitive information has been hacked into for the past eight months by the “Shadow Network.” Neither American firms nor the Indian government has had any luck in finding the core servers, but they suspect China. However, China completely denies all involvement. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said “We are firmly opposed to various kinds of hacking activities through the Internet” and that China will actually help combat this growing issue.
Where we actually stand in a cyber war is unclear. Some believe we have already started in an undeclared cyber war, while others believe it has yet to happen and that the recent cyber attacks were mere “existential threats.”