BY BEN WATSON
A barrage of cyber attacks have hit U.S. companies and institutions over the past decade. At long last, the United States says it’s ready to strike back.
For three years running, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced an increasing number of cyber-related charges, indictments, arrests, and pleas by its Computer Crime and Intellectual Property section:
2016: 86
2017: 138
2018: 167 (through Nov. 2)
And 2018 is ending with a steady drumbeat of responses to cyber criminality, concerning both recent attacks and years-old cases involving U.S. companies and vital infrastructure.
In September — nearly four years after it happened — U.S.officials indicted a North Korean man for his alleged role in the Hollywood-shaking hack of Sony Pictures studios.
In October, seven Russian military hackers were charged with “computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.”
In early November, Justice officials unsealed indictments against more than a dozen Chinese men accused of hacking American aerospace firms for five years, beginning in January 2010. That followed another indictment of three more people and companies with ties to Beijing.
But cybercrime watchers are also watching another trend: computers are learning to learn. They’re getting smarter, “organically evolving their own algorithms.” What can the world’s most powerful nation do to better inform and protect its people, economy and values for the digital wars of the 21st century?
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