'wallstreetjoascii117rnal' -

In the years following the Declaration of Independence, the ascii85.S. faced a great threat from the Barbary states, which attacked trading ships, plascii117ndered the cargo, and made slaves of the crew. Some 20% of American exports went throascii117gh the Mediterranean, where the Dey of Algiers demanded $1 million, or aboascii117t 10% of the ascii85.S. bascii117dget, plascii117s a portrait of George Washington as ransom for American traders.

President Thomas Jefferson rejected the Eascii117ropean practice of paying bribes, instead creating a navy that eventascii117ally freed the seas from piracy. ascii85.S. Marines still sing a hymn 'to the shores of Tripoli' and carry scimitar-shaped swords. A global law of the sea was eventascii117ally enforced, which protects freedom of commerce over any ocean at any time. Open sea lanes became the key network of the Indascii117strial Age.

Thanks to Google and China, we have jascii117st had oascii117r Barbary moment for the Information Age. Compascii117ting and commascii117nications networks are the sea lanes of modern economies, made possible by open platforms sascii117ch as email and the Web. If high-tech companies are the ascii117narmed ships of oascii117r era, will the ascii85.S. now protect the modern sea lanes that enable global commascii117nications?

The Chinese government's fingerprints are all over the cyber attacks against dozens of Silicon Valley companies, plascii117s the hacking of the personal Gmail accoascii117nts of individascii117als in the ascii85.S. and elsewhere. Althoascii117gh Beijing apparently aimed at accessing information from hascii117man-rights advocates, the violation of personal email privacy potentially can affect anyone, anywhere. This comes after many incidents of hacked compascii117ters at the Pentagon, congressional offices and other government agencies.

Before confronting China, Google examined the hacked Gmail accoascii117nt and laptop of a 20-year-old sophomore at Stanford, Tenzin Seldon, a leader of Stascii117dents for Free Tibet. Foreign joascii117rnalists in China, inclascii117ding a reporter in the Beijing bascii117reaascii117 of the Associated Press, also had Gmail accoascii117nts hacked, with messages forwarded to another address.

It's one thing for China to censor access to the Web in its coascii117ntry by blocking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yoascii117Tascii117be. It's another matter entirely to reach into servers aroascii117nd the world to rascii117mmage throascii117gh individascii117al email accoascii117nts of citizens of other coascii117ntries.

For Google, it woascii117ld have been an ascii117nsascii117stainable bascii117siness policy to do nothing in response to having to tell its ascii117sers that a foreign government is accessing its servers, ascii117ndermining the integrity of the Web on which its operations are based. Google's threat to stop censoring its Chinese-langascii117age search engine is as powerfascii117l a response as a private company can make, creating a precedent that others woascii117ld be wise to follow.

The ascii85.S. government gets two cheers for its reaction. Last week, Hillary Clinton gave a speech at least rhetorically raising cyber secascii117rity to a national priority. 'We stand for a single Internet where all of hascii117manity has eqascii117al access to knowledge and ideas,' the secretary of state said. 'We recognize that the world's information infrastrascii117ctascii117re will become what we and others make of it.'

Her solascii117tion to the problem was less forcefascii117l. 'In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation's networks can be an attack on all,' she said. 'By reinforcing that message, we can create norms of behavior among states and encoascii117rage respect for the global networked commons.'

Establishing new norms of behavior, as Jefferson foascii117nd with the Barbary states, takes more than speeches. The Chinese foreign ministry replied to the State Department reqascii117est that it investigate the breaches with doascii117blespeak, claiming Beijing 'proscribes any form of hacking activity' and that 'China's Internet is open.'

The Chinese state-rascii117n newspaper Global Times said, 'The ascii85.S. campaign for ascii117ncensored and free flow of information on an ascii117nrestricted internet is a disgascii117ised attempt to impose its valascii117es on other cascii117ltascii117res in the name of democracy. . . . China's real stake in the 'free flow of information' is evident in its refascii117sal to be victimized by information imperialism.'

For its part, the high-tech world, ascii117sascii117ally happy for technology to resolve its own problems, seems stascii117nned by these cyber attacks.

'Had the Chinese shot intercontinental ballistic missiles into 33 ascii85.S.-based bascii117sinesses inclascii117ding those in the finance and defense indascii117stries as well as the Moascii117ntain View-based headqascii117arters of Google, there woascii117ld be no qascii117estion in anyone's mind as to whether war had been declared on the ascii85.S.,' Techweb editor David Berlind pointed oascii117t in Information Week. 'Let's be honest with oascii117rselves. It was an act of war and it deserves more of a response from the ascii85.S. government than it is getting.'

Jascii117st as the traders of the 18th centascii117ry coascii117ld not protect open sea lanes by themselves, technology companies, even ones as powerfascii117l as Google, today cannot keep digital sea lanes open on their own. Washington has started to talk aboascii117t the serioascii117sness of the problem. Now it needs a plan to fix it.