U.S may react to foil more Cyber attacks from China

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

לעברית לחץ כאן

.

A growing pressure in the U.S. to retaliate against China to persuade this country not to perform more cyber attacks on American companies and organizations The recent attacks according to an updated report targeted also some Israeli companies. The “Right side news” website wrote about the issue and presented a plan that may persuade China to stop.

.

The main points of this proposed effort are:

(A) Create a broad, multinational response. The response to China’s behavior should be forged among the major OECD countries, all of whom are targeted by Chinese computer network operations. Restrictions in one state can be circumvented by exploiting loopholes and security gaps elsewhere. The U.S. should be the motive force behind the creation of both a multinational clearinghouse of cyber activity information and support greater discussion among such major players as Great Britain, Germany, Israel, Australia, South Korea, and Japan.

.

(B) Implement new government-private cooperation. It was a private company that conducted the research that established Chinese culpability, and Chinese efforts are aimed as much at the private sector as the public. The Obama Administration should expand upon its proposed sharing of classified threat data, and establish the equivalent of the Combined Space Operations Center, where commercial and governmental computer security experts can share information on a regular, sustained basis.

.

(C) Go beyond the usual diplomatic responses. Given the commercial activities being affected by the Chinese actions, commercially related responses should rank as high as diplomatic ones. For example, if Chinese companies are benefiting from information extracted by this unit, are they essentially trafficking in stolen goods (in this case, intellectual property)? Would that make their directors subject to criminal charges, their foreign assets susceptible to seizure? How should this affect their ability to be listed on not just American but Asian or European stock exchanges? China’s actions fundamentally jeopardize the international rule of law in a variety of business contexts; it should not be able to benefit from its brazen flouting of those rules.

.

(D) Actually take a tougher line on China. The Obama Administration has actively sought out the Chinese military to cooperate on cyber issues and even engaged in joint “war games” together.[8] One can only imagine how Chinese officers viewed the gullibility of their American counterparts in such “cooperative” sessions, even as they were targeting them from Shanghai. Similarly, Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments questioning the need for a U.S. “pivot” to Asia, in the belief that it somehow antagonizes China, raises doubts about his understanding of how extensive China’s efforts have been.

.