Paul J. Richards
16.06.2016
Beijing and Washington are satisfied with the dialogue regarding the fight against cybercrime. A day earlier, US negotiator Suzanne Spaulding noted the progress in the exchange of information on cyber threats. Sputnik spoke with a Russian expert Eugene Yuchik regarding cyber warfare.
Professor of Ural State Economic University and expert on competitive intelligence, Eugene Yuschik, considers the agreements that have been reached so far to reflect the desire of China and the United States to eliminate “random factors” that can begin a cyberwar.
“The situation mirrors the time when there was a nuclear arms race. Methods of cyber war today are liable to destruction, maybe less than nuclear bombardment of a village, but nevertheless still destructible,” Yuschik said.
He further said that cyber espionage can be very expensive and very dangerous because it can cause far-reaching and long-lasting consequences if important and huge corporations and organizations get hit.
“In this situation it is necessary, as the experience of the nuclear standoff of the 70-80s showed, to exclude two factors. First is to avoid accidentally pressing the trigger, when the actions of the other side are misinterpreted. Second is to avoid a third party that could intervene in between the two states. For these two factors there is a hotline which can quickly clarify unclear issues,” Yuschik said.
He mentioned that eliminating these two factors must be done with evidence, “in order to prevent the situation from sliding into a dangerous phase.”
“So the Sino-US agreement is primarily an opportunity to eliminate such random factors. It is not necessarily a demonstration of good will or good relations with each other,” the analyst said.
Yuschik further said that by starting the inter-governmental consultations on combating cyber espionage, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama avoided bringing up the issue of limiting intelligence against each other. This is quite understandable because it makes no sense to hold back or not hold back information regarding mutual intelligence gathering and industrial espionage.
“It is a fact, that in any country, such as the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States there is a legislature that regulates spying in the context of who conducts it and who is the object of it.”
“Therefore, neither China nor the United States has anything to hide because this is already clear by default. Moreover, intelligence gathering is considered to be an absolutely normal activity because in fact, there is no other way to obtain any sort of sensitive information,” the analyst pointed out.
Following the recent dialogue between China and the US, China’s Xinhua news agency pointed out the main results of the two previous rounds of high-level talks. The first was held in Washington and the second in December of last year from June 13-14 in Beijing.
According to the agency, the plan of the two states is to strengthen cooperation on protecting cyberspace from potential threats. There has been an exchange of information disclosing crimes on the internet. There is now a system where expert consultants can work out the rules of the game in this sphere.
Finally, there is an agreement to hold a third round of dialogue in Washington. US authorities so far are satisfied with the progress in the exchange of information with China about cyber threats, as the representative of the US Department of Homeland Security Suzanne Spaulding had said.
She has high hopes for the development and adoption of obligations which attempt to put an end to the theft of trade secrets and confidential business information. She also noted the importance of regular contact with China regarding this situation and the importance of high-level cooperation between negotiators and experts.
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