By Franz-Stefan Gady
Deeper China - U.S. CERT cooperation will be beneficial for both countries.
Earlier this month, I noted that the recent agreement between China and the United States to cooperate on a number of cyberspace-related policy issues, including an understanding on intellectual property theft, would, in all likelihood, not lead to a reduction of the number of cyberattacks ostensibly launched from Chinese territory.
A new report issued by the U.S.-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike appears to confirm my previous analysis, since it outlines that attacks by Chinese “state-affiliated” hackers (a rather vague term) on U.S. technology and pharmaceutical companies have continued unabated from the time the agreement was announced until now.
This is not surprising. After all, the agreement did not specifically prohibit all cyberattacks and the collection of information via cyberespionage, but rather called for an end to the passing on of information extracted from U.S.-private sector networks to Chinese companies in order for them to gain a competitive advantage. It may be too premature to argue that the agreement has failed.
For now, the September 2015 China-U.S. cyber agreement remains the most useful framework for bilateral cooperation on cyber-related policy issues after the June 2013 Sunnylands summit pledges to deepen cybersecurity cooperation were abandoned with the U.S. indictment of five Chinese military hackers in May 2014.
To avoid past mistakes, the rather vague September agreement needs to be followed up as soon as possible by bilateral meetings to more clearly define specific venues of cooperation between China and the United States.
Read the full story at The Diplomat