If actions – or in this case inaction – speak louder than words, the message from the U.S. government to the private sector regarding defense against cyber economic espionage by China is clear: “You’re on your own.”
That remains true, in the view of multiple experts, even after Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama announced an agreement last week that, according to a White House press secretary Fact Sheet, “neither country’s government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.”
...the agreement refers only to the governments of both countries – not their private sectors...
Kevin Murray, director at Murray Associates, said the reality is that, “both leaders know economics comes first. “Waving an ‘agreement’ in the air may mollify some of their constituents,” he said, but the subtext of promising that “governments” won’t do it acknowledges the reality that they, “can't control all the rogue hackers out there. All they can say is that their governments are not behind it, and they don't condone it. Meanwhile, cutouts will manage the "consultants" who make money with their data-vacuums." more
