Recently a few representatives of our national government pointed their finger at China after it was detected, much too late, some very sensitive files were copied as the result of an alleged hack.

Associated Press coverage of the incident states that the government’s specialized intrusion detection system, not so aptly named EINSTEIN, detected the breach, but not until after the hack had occurred.

Maybe they need to rename the system something more fitting instead of after one of the greatest minds in history.

But here’s the rub, without any hard evidence representatives of the U.S. government released statements that they “think” the Chinese government was responsible.

Sure, it’s difficult to determine without a doubt where a hack came from, especially if a governmental agency was actually behind the misdeed.

And certainly our government should look into the problem, and most importantly fix whatever holes are in the system.

But to make accusations without hard proof is going to cause greater wounds in the already stressed relations with the nation. Not only will that accusation against China inspire ire from the country’s leaders, but the citizens as well.

Additionally, it appears to be increasingly easy to break into our nation’s most sensitive databases and collect crucial information, without getting caught.

It’s certainly possible that China’s government was involved, either directly or indirectly. And our nation should look into that possibility. But next time our representatives should wait to place any blame, until the evidence is there to back it up.

Most importantly, our nation needs to build a more secure database; one capable of providing that evidence should it be compromised again.