It’s reported that the White House is drafting unprecedented sanctions specific to Chinese companies and individuals who have profited from the digital theft of U.S. trade secrets (although no decision is yet made on whether such sanctions will be issued), and that Russia and China are cross-indexing stolen information to target, recruit or blackmail operatives. VASCO and STEALTHbits commented that unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese companies.
[su_note note_color=”#ffffcc” text_color=”#00000″]John Gunn, VP of Communications, VASCO Data Security :
“People need to keep their expectations extremely low because this issue is far bigger than cyber espionage. America’s addiction to cheap Chinese products combined with the current fragile state of Chinese equity markets and their potential to drag down global markets, creates a situation where the U.S. will not take any meaningful punitive action that might provoke the Chinese. The only viable solution is better protection against future attacks.”[/su_note]
[su_note note_color=”#ffffcc” text_color=”#00000″]Jeff Hill, Manager, STEALTHbits :
“Information in context is always more value to intelligence analysts than isolated facts, and State actors like China – unlike a small organized crime ring or lone hacker – have the resources and patience to connect the dots among data stolen from disparate attacks. Having the social security number of a lower-level US State Department bureaucrat stationed at the Chinese Embassy in Beijing may be useful, but it’s infinitely more valuable when combined with data from the OPM breach that details the time that obscure official spent in the CIA in the late 1990s. Throw in a few personal tidbits from a family Facebook page, and a Chinese intelligence analyst can quickly paint an exploitable picture. Pardon the worn cliché’, but information really is power, especially in the shadowy world of international espionage.”[/su_note]
