The cyber experts from the US government suspect that the attacks on the Obama and McCain campaign computer networks this summer came from China. The FBI and the Secret Service warned Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s campaign teams that their computer networks have been compromised by foreign hackers that downloaded large quantities of information from them. This was believed to be an attempt to learn more about the contenders’ policy positions. Even if the cyber experts are pretty sure the attack originated from China, they cannot be sure whether they were government-sponsored or just unaffiliated hackers.

When the Obama campaign team was warned of the hacking procedure, technical experts speculated that the attacks came from China or Russia. However, both campaigns hired private cyber security companies to address, stop and prevent the breaches. All of the parts involved refused to comment the situation, but an interesting fact reveals that hackers were believed to enter the campaign networks in order to find something they could use in negotiating with the future president. Nevertheless, it is difficult to trace the exact source of an attack beyond a server in a particular country.

This is not the first Chinese implication in a cyber attack. Last year, the Chinese military hacked into the Pentagon system serving Robert Gates, the defense secretary, stealing information from un unclassified network in the most serious breach of the military’s computer network. These events certainly mean that President-elect Obama should name a chief technology officer that will have to put cyberwarfare and strengthening government network security at the top of his list. Furthermore, he should communicate closely with the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the State Department.