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Chinese hacking continues to build anger in American business
and government circles. As a result, private companies may be
encouraged to do more than passively defend their networks as
evidenced by the recent report of a commission headed by two Obama
appointees, former US Ambassador to China (and minor GOP
Presidential candidate) Jon Huntsman and former Director of
National Intelligence Dennis Blair. The report apparently lists
Chinese hacking as a major threat to intellectual property
(it's due out later today). And, according to
early press reports, the commission calls for an expansion of
private companies' authority to track their stolen data back to
the attacker's network:
"The commission argued that
American companies "ought to be able to retrieve their
electronic files or prevent the exploitation of their stolen
information" by designing their computer files to
self-destruct if they fall into the wrong hands. But the authors of
the report also say that if the damage "continues at current
levels," the government should consider allowing American
companies to counterattack — essentially taking cyberwar
private.
"If counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are
many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe
damage to the capability" of the Chinese or other groups
committing computerized theft, the report said. But it added a
qualifier: "while properly empowered law enforcement
authorities are mobilized." Many in the administration have
opposed such ideas, fearing that they could lead to a cycle of
escalation between the United States and other nations that could
easily spin out of control."
The commission also adopts another view first popularized here:
that attribution of attacks should be followed by retribution, and
it comes up with at least one clever bit of retribution that
I'd missed: restrictions on access to US stock exchanges:
"The new report does propose
specific remedies. One is to mandate that foreign companies that
want to be listed on stock exchanges in the United States first
pass a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission about
whether they use stolen intellectual property. "They all want
their shares to be traded here, so this would impose a real
cost," Mr. Blair said. Similarly, whether companies protect
intellectual property would be considered by the Committee on
Foreign Investment in the United States, which judges whether an
investment in the United States could pose a security risk.
Currently it looks only at national security implications of
investments; this would add a new criterion."
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