Cyber Espionage

Cyber security precautions for a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution on his trips to China:

"I first of all get a loaner laptop. And the USB that I bring, I clean digitally before I bring it, so it's totally blank," Lieberthal says.

Lieberthal then disconnects the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions, sets email filters and a virtual private network, or VPN. That's all before the trip. While in China, he never lets his Blackberry leave his side, never uses a wireless Internet connection while he has his USB drive plugged in, and he also physically hides his fingers when typing passwords.

When he gets home, everything gets digitally wiped and cleaned.

Why take all this precaution? Espionage. More specifically, cyber-espionage.

At first I thought this was overkill, until I looked up Lieberthal, who is an expert on US-China foreign policy. Interesting story throughout. Government and private sector snooping is probably more pervasive than most of us realize.