Still, the shield's effectiveness as a defense in cyber-warfare is far from clear: Bruce Schneier, the founder and chief technology officer of security firm BT Counterpane, argues that no single strategy can stop determined hackers.

FORBES: China's Golden Cyber-Shield

The debate, hosted by Intelligences Squared, featured Bruce Schneier, (chief security technology officer with BT) and Marc Rotenberg (executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center) speaking in support of the idea that the threat of cyber war has indeed been exaggerated.

FORBES: The Ten-Year-Old "Cyberwar" Debate Continues

Bruce Schneier, a security expert and chief security-technology officer at U.K.-based telecommunications company BT Group PLC, said one shouldn't assume that Zappos and Amazon have the same or similar security structures, despite their corporate relationship.

WSJ: Zappos Says Customer Database Hacked

The new technique may serve as a wake-up call for mobile carriers, which have long been in denial about the vulnerabilities of GSM security, says Bruce Schneier, encryption guru and chief technology officer of BT Counterpane.

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BT, a British telecoms company that buys products vetted in Banbury, says it has not had any security issues with them (though it rechecks everything itself, just to be sure).

ECONOMIST: Huawei