It’s the greatest transfer of wealth in history

In November, 14 U.S. intelligence agencies issued a report describing a far-reaching industrial espionage campaign by Chinese spy agencies.

This campaign has been in the works for years and targets a swath of industries: biotechnology, telecommunications, and nanotechnology, as well as clean energy. One U.S. metallurgical company lost technology to China’s hackers that cost $1 billion and 20 years to develop, U.S. officials said last year. An Apple Inc. (AAPL) global supply manager pled guilty in 2011 to funneling designs and pricing information to China and other countries; a Ford Motor Co. (F) engineer was sentenced to six years in prison in 2010 for trying to smuggle 4,000 documents, including design specs, to China. Earlier this month, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration told Congress that China-based hackers had gained access to sensitive files stored on computers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

As the toll adds up, political leaders and intelligence officials in the U.S. and Europe are coming to a disturbing conclusion: Fighting fair, expecting intellectual property rights to be honored is a farce; the time is now to simply write source code that if cloned will create time delayed death viruses to the perpetrators.  In essence a security system.

Another good reason why keeping jobs and technology at home is much like having your own military = certain things your outsource at your own peril.