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Cyber attacks, which we often see in Hollywood movies, are coming to your home and, more specifically, to your email. Such attacks occur all the time without the user knowing that his or her email account has been breached or tampered with. Most are individual cases, involving hacking into private email accounts for whatever reason. However, cyber attacks are now more sophisticated and cause more damage because they are not only about individual human security but state security. It was not surprising that Google announced recently that it would no longer censor content on its Chinese operation. The California-based company found that email accounts of Chinese human rights activists had been attacked, possibly with the collusion of Chinese state agencies.

The US government has quickly jumped into the fray, saying it will also lodge a formal complaint with Chinese officials to register its concern over freedom of expression in China. This certainly will cause further tension in already strained US-Chinese relations. Of late, Washington has adopted a new attitude toward human rights issues in China. The Obama administration had all but abandoned the kind of strong rhetoric often found in previous US administrations, particularly regarding human rights violations in China. But the Obama administration knows full well that if there is no action or comment on the part of the government, the American public will criticise its silence.

In the coming months, there will be more said on the new areas of contention between the US and China, including currency valuation and climate change. Freedom of speech and expression is a core American value. So when Google said it would withdraw from China, this set off alarm bells in Washington. Such action would certainly affect China's online strategies. Beijing understands the power of the Internet and information in general. The country's centralised political power has allowed the government to form a comprehensive online strategy, including censorship of what it considers to be undesirable websites. China is also exporting its online technology in blocking websites. In the past, Google turned a blind eye to such practises because of the vast market potential of China. The reasons that have led the company to this decision will be closely watched by its rival companies, email providers, as well as governments in developing countries.

In the past, cyber attacks have occurred between countries at each other's throats diplomatically, or at war. The aim has been to disrupt the operational capacity of computer-related activities and programmes. In modern societies, all electronic power grids are controlled by computers. Hacking into such a computer system could have devastating effects. In the past few years, attacks like this have occurred in Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union. Within the Asian region, cyber attacks were reported early last year when the websites of Burmese pro-democratic activist groups in exile were attacked and crippled for weeks.

Such actions have become more common in developing countries where governments want to close down certain websites they deem dangerous and subversive. But even with these blocking practices, it is hard to completely shut down the Internet because there are numerous ways to evade official sanctions.

Of late, Thai authorities have been monitoring private emails with intensity. Sometimes, agencies act on their own accord, even though the Abhisit government has said repeatedly it respects freedom of expression both in print and digital form. But somehow there are discrepancies. Experts in information technology have disguised themselves as friendly users on online social networking groups such as Facebook and Twitter, trying to locate groups and individuals who are considered to have negative views on the country and its respected institutions. Thailand used to be one of the freest countries in Asia, both in traditional and new media. However, in the past three years Internet censorship and heavy filtering of online content has become a common practice here.