They’re stealing what?!

I think we’re now to the point where before we build a new weapon – we need to consider what we’ll do on the day someone we don’t like uses it against us.

Because based on a Pentagon report obtained by the Washington Post, Chinese cyber-thieves have hacked into the design data for the Patriot missile defense system, and both the Army’s and the Navy’s systems for shooting down high-altitude ballistic missiles. Basically, that’s the backbone of our missile defense for Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf.

James Lewis is a cyber-policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The Chinese now know a lot more about our weapons. They know how to build them and it gets them a little closer to being equal to us in capability,” says Lewis.

And it sure beats having to design all that stuff yourself. Hey – maybe they could take up the expense of protecting Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf.

But in the meantime, what do we do? One Pentagon strategy is to unleash our own cyber-weapons – and make it clear that if they hack us, we can hack them right back.

“There’s only so much you can do though. We can make ourselves a harder target, but we also have to engage with the Chinese and say this is a serious problem and you’ve got to stop,” says Lewis.

And I suppose ultimately we could just let computers fight the next war. The president would be playing a little solitaire in the oval office one day and suddenly, on the screen a message. From ChineseDragon1:

“Shall we play a game?”

War Games 1983. Remember how the movie ended?

“Strange game…Not to Play.”