Chinas has enlisted their hackers.
We are cooperating with ours:
On the Internet, the battle against terrorists is often a private affair. There are several loosely organized, unofficial, anti-terrorist groups out there, as well as individuals. These irregulars stalk pro-terrorist Internet users, often feeding useful information to police and intelligence agencies, but also taking action themselves. Some of the action is of questionable legality, or definitely over the line. The authorities try not to take off after the irregulars, even when anti-terrorist efforts cause collateral damage (like taking non-terrorist websites offline for a while.) But at times, the irregulars and the official spies are working at cross-purposes.
Well, mostly. And with some resentment. And in an enviornment where some of the cyberbooters are interfering with our official war efforts.
For now, these online freelancers are working on our side and seem to provide a clear net benefit.
But what happens when some guy in New York City waging his private war against the jihadis gets noticed by the enemy? If they murder him, will we treat this as a crime or part of the war?
In time, our cyberbooters will work against our foreign policy in a deliberate and directly dangerous manner and we will be forced to address this situation with more urgency.
And just as private mercenary companies wandered Europe, Cyberbooter companies may wage war against others online.
It is interesting to see this develop. Not necessarily interesting in a good way, either.
