US, China Seek Deal On Cyberspace Attacks

Despite ongoing negotiations between the superpowers toward an arms control accord for cyberspace, espionage and theft will likely go on as usual.

The agreement being negotiated would also not appear to cover the use of tools to steal intellectual property, as the Chinese military does often to bolster state-owned industries, according to an indictment of five officers of the People’s Liberation Army last year. And it is not clear that the rules would prohibit the kind of attack carried out last year against Sony Pictures Entertainment, for which the United States blamed North Korea. That attack melted down about 70 percent of Sony’s computer systems.