Qualche giorno fa discutevo con un caro amico sulle minacce dal e nel c.d. “cyber-space”. A parere di chi scrive la minaccia principale riguarda lo spionaggio, economico soprattutto, più che la sicurezza delle infrastrutture. Con questo non intendo dire che non esiste un problema che riguarda la sicurezza di queste ultime – tutt’altro – bensì che si tende generalmente a sovrastimare la seconda ed a sottostimare la prima.
L’articolo del New York Times di oggi giunge al momento giusto. Come riportato dal quotidiano statunitense la Cina farebbe un consistente ricorso al cyber-espionage a danno degli americani per velocizzare e migliorare i propri programmi di droni.
L’articolo, peraltro, riporta utili informazioni sulla competizione sino-americana nell’area del Pacifico:

[…]The Chinese military, with its constant focus on potential war over Taiwan and an eye on China’s growing territorial disputes, is at the vanguard of preparing drones for use in maritime situations. That is unlike the United States, which has used drones to hunt and kill suspected terrorists and guerrilla fighters, mostly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
American drones “are not designed to enter into contested or denied air space,” Mr. Easton said. “So they would be unable to fight in any conflict with China.”
China, on the other hand, is building drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles, precisely to operate in contested spaces. “It’s a very useful instrument for safeguarding maritime sovereignty,” said Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and director of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.
“China will gradually step up its use of U.A.V.’s in this area.
”Chinese strategists have discussed using drones in attack situations if war with the United States were to break out in the Pacific, according to the Project 2049 report. Citing Chinese military technical material, the report said the People’s Liberation Army’s “operational thinkers and scientists envision attacking U.S. aircraft-carrier battle groups with swarms of multimission U.A.V.’s in the event of conflict.”