U.S. To Implement Strategy Against China Trade Secret Theft

There have been an onslaught of trade secret thefts and espionage strikes that have affected many U.S. corporations, including General Motors, Ford, DuPont, Dow Chemical and Cargill, as well as many media news outlet including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg news. All of the attacks seem to be originating from one area in China, and that's the HQ for the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398.

The White House said that the trade secret thefts "threatens American businesses, undermines national security and places the security of the U.S. economy in Jeopardy." According to Mandiant, a U.S. security firm, there is strong evidence that support that these attacks were coming straight from Chinese hacker groups that have links to the Chinese government. Mandiant's collected evidence amounts to a 60-page report.

The White House released a report that listed a dozen cases of trade secret theft by Chinese companies and individuals, which is a lot more than any of the other countries mentioned. They stated that "the pace of economic espionage and trade secret theft against the U.S. corporations are accelerating." The new strategy that the White House will implement "coordinates and improves existing U.S. government efforts to protect the innovation that drive the American economy of cyber assaults".

U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, made a statement on the cyber attacks, saying, "For an economy like ours, that's going to win based on our innovation of what we produce and create, this is a critically important issue." Many of the affected companies have moved their corporate operations back to U.S. soil, in which Kirk says, "If you're going to take our core technology, then we're better off being in our home country."

[via Reuters]