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> information about and software for circumventing the Chinese government's internet censorship systems -- which, among many other things, blocks access to, eg,

> information about and software for circumventing the Chinese government's internet censorship systems -- which, among many other things, blocks access to, eg, Google, and The New York Times. The actual impact of the attack was to have thousands of news outlets and discussion forum sites mention and link to the github repos that offer circumvention. Further, by attacking Github, it's guaranteed that many of the most tech-savvy Chinese internet users will have the existance of the forbidden repos launched into their consciousness. Of course the Chinese government knows this and was likely not responsible for the attack. The attack would not be possible to commit by the actual perpetrator if there weren't such a knee-jerk bias against the Chinese government's internet censorship. Let it also be noted that the US Government censors lots of information too, both through so-called "official secrets" requiring security clearance granted by party members, and via laws that crack down on things deemed morally wrong, as well as illicit drugs.

carboncopy 12y ago
I'm not sure why you are being downvoted; I think differing opinions are the heart of HN. > so-called "official secrets" requiring security clearance granted by party members It appears that you're not from the U.S. or another Western-aligned country, security clearances aren't granted to or by the dominant political parties, but are an artifact of government and military/defense industry bureaucracy.
tjradcliffe 12y ago
> Of course the Chinese government knows this and was likely not responsible for the attack. This is an example of the logical fallacy of "argumentum ad stultum", or "appeal to stupidty". It goes like this: - X would be stupid. - No one would ever do anything stupid. : Therefore no one would ever do X. There are so many counter-examples to this argument that they hardly bear mentioning. People do stupid things every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Organizations multiply stupidity as often as they moderate it. It may be that this wasn't the Chinese government, but pointing out that it would be stupid for them to do so is not an argument against it at all.
- grandalf 12y ago
  > People do stupid things every day of the week and twice on Sundays. While you are correct in pointing out the logical fallacy, there have been several examples of highly likely false-flag cyber attacks lately. The Sony hack is another example, the result of which was the exact opposite of what the state actor alleged to have done the attack wanted. "Cyber attacks" are a great platform for false flag attacks because it's easy to obtain servers or DDOS drones in any country. I'd say a good indicator of strategy like this going on is when a defacing attack is accompanied by targeted data breach. Chances are the data breach was the goal, and the defacing the smoke screen. Many HN readers could stage a cyber attack that would be initially linked to North Korea or China with a few hours of reading/research.

carboncopy 12y ago

I'm not sure why you are being downvoted; I think differing opinions are the heart of HN. > so-called "official secrets" requiring security clearance granted by party members It appears that you're not from the U.S. or another Western-aligned country, security clearances aren't granted to or by the dominant political parties, but are an artifact of government and military/defense industry bureaucracy.

tjradcliffe 12y ago

> Of course the Chinese government knows this and was likely not responsible for the attack. This is an example of the logical fallacy of "argumentum ad stultum", or "appeal to stupidty". It goes like this: - X would be stupid. - No one would ever do anything stupid. : Therefore no one would ever do X. There are so many counter-examples to this argument that they hardly bear mentioning. People do stupid things every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Organizations multiply stupidity as often as they moderate it. It may be that this wasn't the Chinese government, but pointing out that it would be stupid for them to do so is not an argument against it at all.

grandalf 12y ago
> People do stupid things every day of the week and twice on Sundays. While you are correct in pointing out the logical fallacy, there have been several examples of highly likely false-flag cyber attacks lately. The Sony hack is another example, the result of which was the exact opposite of what the state actor alleged to have done the attack wanted. "Cyber attacks" are a great platform for false flag attacks because it's easy to obtain servers or DDOS drones in any country. I'd say a good indicator of strategy like this going on is when a defacing attack is accompanied by targeted data breach. Chances are the data breach was the goal, and the defacing the smoke screen. Many HN readers could stage a cyber attack that would be initially linked to North Korea or China with a few hours of reading/research.