Obama and Chinese President Reach Agreement to Stop State Sponsored Hacking. Really?

Written by: Richard Sheinis, Esq.

On Friday of last week, President Obama announced that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a “common understanding” not to conduct or support state sponsored hacking. “We have agreed that neither the U.S. or Chinese government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property including trade secrets or other confidential information for commercial advantage.”

You might not want to let down your firewalls just yet. If I understand the background leading up to this agreement, the Chinese government has sponsored hacking into U.S. companies to obtain information, to give Chinese companies an economic advantage over U.S. companies in the global marketplace. The U.S. has engaged in, well, being the hacking victim. I do not understand why the U.S. agrees to not do something it has not been doing. Doesn’t such an agreement make us look as culpable as the Chinese. Shouldn’t the agreement be that the Chinese agree to stop their state sponsored hacking?

Now that we have this “agreement”, should we expect things to change? I would not count on it. The Chinese have been hacking U.S. companies for some time. We know it. The Chinese know we know it. It has not stopped them before. Why should we expect a stern warning from President Obama to change their behavior? My advice to my clients is the same a corner man gives to his boxer in the ring, “Don’t let your guard down.”