Could Operation Aurora have been written by a freelancer, picked up by a bureaucrat, and then reassigned to a freelancer with ties to Google? It is a possibility worth entertaining, at least. Some have argued that the Chinese government should have more effective means for securing intelligence than students and online misfits. But others say a decentralized approach suits Beijing just fine. "You can see the benefits of having a blurry line," says Lewis. "The Russians do it all the time with Estonia: 'Of course it wasn't us. Can you prove it was us?'"
Ultimately, a loose connection between Beijing intelligence operatives and patriotic hackers is more troubling than a strong one. Governments operate under constraints. Gangs of young men -- as the United States has learned the hard way -- don't. "Certainly if it's government-sponsored cyberwarfare, I have someone I can deter," says Henderson. "If it's mutually assured online destruction -- OK, I can at least develop a theory on that. But with rogue Internet actors it's very difficult. They're potentially very dangerous."