Editor's note: Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and
author of "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an
Uncertain World." Read more of his writing at
http://www.schneier.com/ (CNN) -- Google made headlines when it
went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated
some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated
attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that
Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their
attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already
-- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the
hackers. In order to comply with government search warrants on
user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail
accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to
gain access. Google's system isn't unique. Democratic
governments around the world -- in Sweden, Canada and the UK,
for example -- are rushing to pass laws giving their police new
powers of Internet surveillance, in many cases requiring c