It gets worse.

Threat: Outsourced industrial espionage

There are three general theories about the Chinese government's role in the hacking of Google, which involved both the theft of Google's intellectual property and also the accessing of Gmail accounts of critics of the Chinese government, both inside and outside China. The government either perpetrated the crime, had nothing to do with the crime, or the crime was committed on the government's behalf by freelance hackers looking to make money.

Of these three, the third possibility is by far the most threatening. What this could mean is that an industry has emerged in China where hackers seek out secrets that might be of value, and then look to sell them to the highest bidder. Of course, that's nothing new, either. But Google characterized the attacks as "," which could mean freelance hackers are operating as organized businesses -- sort of like software companies with R&D labs that develop such advanced techniques. They also mirror the attacks reported last year.

And if it's happening in China, it's probably happening elsewhere, too.