Soft power: Obama’s effect on American business in Gulf of Guinea « Competitive Intelligence in Central Africa

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A report commissioned by a US Congressional advisory panel monitoring the security implications of trading with China has warned that China has started spying on the US government and major companies.

And, says Finjan, the business Internet security specialist, now is the time for companies to start beefing up their IT security defences to stop them falling victim to what appears to be a rash of impending cyber-espionage from the Far East.

” Many cyber attacks and hacker incursions originated from China have been implicated in into Western IT systems in recent years. Obviously it’s hard to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the government there is involved in these attacks, however according to the report it’s quite likely that government is active in this domain,” said Yuval-Ben Itzhak, Finjan’s chief technology officer.

“It’s against this backdrop that we’ve been conducting investigations into Chinese attacks on Western public and private-sector IT systems for some time,” he added.

According to the Finjan CTO, his company’s malicious code research centre (MCRC) conducted in in-depth study into the rising volume of attacks emanating from China and reported that there were some very sophisticated attacks taking place.

In the study, he explained, Finjan’s research team found at least one set of attacks coming from a server group that belongs to a Chinese government office.

Researchers, he said, discovered that some sites in the network lead to Trojan sites that exploit the users’ Web browser software by downloading the Trojan and installing it on the user desktop.

Once the users’ PC has been infected, he went on to say, the Trojan then starts to send data to other Web sites on the Internet-connected network.

Additional sites in the network, meanwhile, were found to monitor and control the attack using statistics as to how many users visit the site and how many got infected.

“And that was two years ago, so you can imagine that the Chinese hacker attack groups – regardless of who they are affiliated to – have increased in their level of technology sophistication, so this report serves as a clear warning to companies of the need to review and enhance their IT security defences,” he said.

“Tools and products to fights against the increasing cybercrime from China are available for US Businesses and individuals. The reason many businesses are becoming victims to these attacks is the lack of knowledge and the false believe that their existing Firewalls and Anti-virus can do the job for them. Although that was the case 10-5 years ago, since cyber criminals introduced new attack techniques Firewall and Anti-virus are not enough to stop today’s cyber attacks.”

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Soft power: Obama’s effect on American business in Gulf of Guinea

In Uncategorized on June 26, 2008 by Admin. Tagged: Competitive intelligence, Public Affairs, Soft Power

Maybe he will be elected at the evening of November 4, 2008. Perhaps not. The American people is sovereign. But whatever the verdict out of the ballot boxes, the spectacular rise of Sen Barack Obama will have made it possible for the USA to write their most beautiful story of political marketing on the international scene since the Marshall plan. A collective operation of soft power, without premeditation, which should benefit to the public image and the business interests of USA to the four corners of the world, and specially in Africa.

The Bush presidency and diplomacy

The Bush jr’s presidency, let us say, was among the most complex of the White House. The republicans, often qualified “falcons”, abruptly found themselves to have to manage the consequencies of the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001. They had to restore the leadership of the United States at the eyes of the Americans and at the face of the world. But among disillusions, emotions, real politik and economic interests, public freedoms paid the highest price. Stuck to Iraq war, the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the image of the United States became catastrophic everywhere in the world. Except in Africa, as revealed it a study carried out in June 2007 in 47 countries by the Pew institute. Uncle Sam’s competitors continue to exploit those faults to soap the board for Africom and to slow down, as much as possible, “the economic and military expansion of the USA” on Sen Obama’s continent of origin. But America has soft resources…

The “yes we can!” of American soft power

Joel Stein recently wrote in Los Angeles Times: “If the president produces very concrete effects on certain people (…) for the majority among us, his influence is the way in which we perceive our country”. Mutatis mutandis, let us add: the way in which African decision makers perceive USA. To date, Hollywood, CNN, NBA, Universities and some US NGO’s have an unequalled influence in Africa. While propelling an African-American in the race to the White House, the people of America send a message: “if another America is possible, then, another world is possible!” The proof through Obama’s success. It is an aspect of the American dream which reappears off ashes of a blown and critized political power… A dream wich nourishes a will of change, an exceptional realism, a sens of leadership. If Africa sees itself when it looks in American’s mirror, it can only be favorable to USA interests.

But are Americans aware of their influence?

The Americans little appreciate the extraordinary influence they have in subsaharian Africa. Among them, diplomats born around 1945 are those who remain the most rivetted with the old handbooks of procedure which forced to refer to Paris before venturing in what formerly was regarded as the “French pre-square”. A whiff of the congress of Berlin (1884-1885), which devoted “the sharing out of the African cake.” The breakthrough of Chinese, their off-handedness pragmatism and their appetite for raw materials, seriously start to wake up the United States which would like to increase their oil imports from the gulf of Guinea from 15 to 25% from now to 2015… Meanwhile they’re fighting against Islamist terrorism whose Nigeria conceals very small dormant cells. Other strategic markets such as water, energy, transport or information and communication technologies… are more & more opened to US investors who want to benefit from their exceptional capital-perception in Africa, consequence of the Obama’s effect urbi & orbi. Guy J. Gweth

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