US Cyber Strategy

In May 2009, the Pentagon created a new military command for cyberspace. The New York Times remarked that it revealed "preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare."

In December 2009, as the attacks on Google were taking place, Obama appointed former Microsoft executive Howard Schmidt as Cyber-security Czar

A White House Cyberspace Policy Review published in June 2009 was peppered with references to public-private partnerships and will have made computer security firms salivate at the prospect of becoming fully-fledged members of the military-industrial complex.

In fact, another great source of bloodcurdling quotes on the Google affair has been computer security experts who have every interest in keeping the story alive.

The CEO of data encryption company PGP went so far as to compare Obama's cyber plans to President Eisenhower's order of the day on D-Day, calling it a "blueprint of what is required for us to achieve victory in this conflict," adding "as Ike [Eisenhower] said, we can accept nothing less than 'Victory!'"

Missile Gap

No-one should blame managers of security firms for taking the White House cyber strategy seriously. After all, there is serious money to be made. But journalists have a duty to be skeptical of government agents and those may profit from a story.

Fifty years ago, in his presidential campaign, John F Kennedy pointed to a "missile gap" between the Soviet Union and the US. President Eisenhower denied the Soviets had an advantage, but the Sputnik program had spooked the public and no-one believed him. By the time the missile gap was revealed as a myth it had played its political role.

2008 was not 1960. Obama's cyber strategy played a very small part in his campaign. But the Google hacking storm has come as a welcome diversion from domestic difficulties. The rest of us would all do well to remember that the balance of power in cyberspace remains heavily weighted in favor of America and that hysteria about Chinese hackers is overblown.