Obama Meets Chinese President Xi: Hacking and Cyber Security

President Barack Obama is meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping today near Palm Springs, California, one day after the disclosure of an event which has been kept secret so far: the hacking of Obama’s and John McCain’s presidential campaigns of 2008 by Chinese expert hackers. The two-day summit is expected to deal with the issue of cyber security, among other things, as the American President will ask Xi to adequately address the U.S. complaints against Chinese attempts to export confidential information. China’s actions have been regarded as a large-scale campaign of a modern kind of espionage.

At the same time, a measure sponsored by U.S. Representative Mike Rogers was unveiled yesterday, involving a piece of legislation that will seek to punish foreign computer hackers who target U.S. companies, hired by other countries such as Russia, Iran or China itself. Under this law, hackers and their families would be denied entry to the United States, together with other measures such as the freezing of their bank accounts.

Representatives’ Positions

According to Kelsey Knight, from Michigan, this measure means putting a face to these hackers, who operate from different parts of the world and through a network which fosters anonymity. Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, member of the Democratic Party, has said that the aim of this piece of legislation is centered around Obama and Xi’s meeting. The message behind it is one of support towards the American President, affirming the Representatives’ determination to act on his support, and do so aggressively. According to Ryan, President Obama needs to know this while he is in negotiations with his Chinese counterpart.

Even though the bill’s sponsors have assured the public that the law and its punishments do not apply to any American citizen, some Representatives have shown some opposition. Representative C. A. Ruppersberger of Maryland said he considers the law to be too severe, which could bring serious consequences for the country.

Hacking Today and In the Past

In May, a Pentagon report addressed the issue of hacking and computer security for the first time. In the report, China was accused of infiltrating American computer networks with the only aim of retrieving sensitive data. According to the information revealed yesterday, the 2008 cases had as an aim to export internal data from the presidential campaigns, such as position papers and e-mails of the electoral advisers of each of the campaigns.