This is a difficult topic to hold and maintain a firm position. I think most people would agree they don’t want their country spied on. I for sure don’t want other countries spying on us and hacking our systems. At the same time if a country has reasonable suspicion, evidence, and intelligence a foreign country is plotting building a mass mount of nuclear weapons, is planning on a unprovoked act of war on another country (mainly our’s), or if we believe someone is trying to hack us or spy on us we want our country to find out the intentions of others. It’s a slippery slope and I see all sides.
I think seeing all sides is so important. Britain found the Russian spies who poisoned the former Russian spies and accidentally also poisoned civilians; chemical warfare. Using the methods of spies was the only way to find the culprits.
Right or wrong is immaterial. Spying is a fact of life and each side knows the other is doing it. The types and purposes of espionage are many, and sometimes obvious. The name of the game is CYA; what that entails is complex and ever-changing.
So when a country gets caught, and the one that has done the catching jumps up and down and says "how dare you?" and makes threatening noises, is this just theatrics for the voters?
Well it happens. Guess they must feel it is somehow to their advantage to keep tabs. Has become the way things are done when there is the wherewithal and resources available. I don't know that there is anything wrong with it - people are curious about whatever. I don't think I could do it as I'm just not that interested in different countries.
You got that right about my question above. I'm sorry if my reply seemed not perfectly on topic. I was attempting to show how it works, or can work, when who is doing the spying is reversed.
It is highly probable that there is far more spying going on than we ever guess: commercial spying between companies and nations for trade secrets, political spying into rival parties and lives of opposition representatives and candidates, terrorists spying out "opportunities", armed forces spying on each other's capacities and so forth.
I think it's a good thing other countries are spying on us. It's sometimes a better "check and balance" than the citizens are capable of.
However, there is a difference between spying and sabotage.
EDIT: How to best protect against hacking? Don't connect to outside networks. We should have learned that from "Battlestar Galactica" and "Independence Day". LOL
This post was edited by Walt O'Reagun at September 7, 2018 12:19 PM MDT
Others spy on us, ergo it is not wrong for us to spy on others. We would be naive to think that they are spying on us just to see what we're wearing or how clean we keep our homes. Cyber attacks are increasing by more countries every day and my fear is that the US is not as far ahead of the curve as we should be when it comes to cyber security. Didn't I read not that long ago that a child managed to hack into some high government system? That is a person whose education you want to cultivate and hire.
Rizz 