From: Detroit News

By U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers

Today, our government, our industries, and your personal information will be  subjected to hundreds of thousands of attempts at hacking. Today, we are in a  stealthy cyber war in America. And we’re losing.

Every morning in China, thousands of highly-trained computer engineers wake  up with one mission: Steal American intellectual property that the Chinese can  in turn use to compete against us in the international market. How can a  Michigan company thrive when the threat of a dedicated nation state stealing  your hard work is a click away? Next week, I am reintroducing bipartisan  legislation to help American businesses better protect their computer networks  and intellectual property from advanced cyber attacks.

There is a rich history over the centuries of governments and militaries  conducting espionage on each other to better understand each other’s plans,  intentions and capabilities. It would, of course, be odd for me to lament these  efforts, from my position as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

These espionage activities over the years, however, have largely been focused  on collecting intelligence on foreign governments and militaries, not on brazen  and wide-scale theft of intellectual property from foreign commercial  competitors.

You don’t have to look far these days to find a press report about another  firm, such as Google and the New York Times, whose networks have been penetrated  by Chinese cyber espionage and have lost valuable information.

The scope of this effort is massive and the rampant nature of the theft is  breathtaking. What is currently happening to American intellectual property may  be the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. A senior  intelligence official recently stated that the amount of stolen intellectual  property is equal—and now exceeding– to that of the entire library collection  at the Library of Congress. This activity can no longer just be a cost of doing  business with China. China is literally attempting to steal our way of life.

And it’s not just China doing the attacking and the stealing. Other nation  states like Russia and Iran acting as cyber predators are in on the act.  Professional organized crime elements in Eastern Europe and other spots around  the globe use cyber attacks to fuel their nefarious activities. The attacks are  quiet and stealthy. Sometimes volumes of information will be stolen in one foul  swoop. Other times malware will be placed on computers or networks meant to  slowly and quietly steal information over months or even years. Our foes are  patient and growing increasingly sophisticated.

The cybersecurity debate has been an ongoing struggle in Congress. The  Department of Defense recently listed cybersecurity threats as one of the  greatest security challenges we face today. It certainly is the threat that we  are least prepared to fight.

Cyber war is currently being waged on American businesses and the government  is unable to deploy defenses on their behalf. It is widely asserted that  American businesses have lost billions of dollars due to cyber espionage.

For this reason, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Dutch  Ruppersberger and I wrote a bipartisan bill that takes an important first step  in combating this effort. We will re-introduce our bipartisan cyber threat  information sharing legislation next Wednesday, February 13th. This bipartisan  legislation was developed in close consultation with a broad range of private  sector companies, trade groups, privacy and civil liberties advocates, and the  Executive Branch. The bill introduced next week will be identical to the “Cyber  Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (H.R. 3523) that passed the House by a  strong bipartisan vote of 248-168 in April 2012.

The U.S. government has classified cyber threat intelligence that, if shared  with private sector, could help the private sector better defend its own  networks. Currently, the vast majority of private sector does not have access to  this vital data. Developed in close consultation with broad range of private  sector companies, trade groups, privacy and civil liberties advocates, and the  executive branch, the bill enjoys the support of virtually every sector of the  economy.

With simple, targeted legislation we can make a common-sense change that  would take an important step to protect American computer networks from cyber  theft and cyber attacks.

Countries like China are aggressive in their efforts to provide for a better  way of life for their one billion citizens. We must remain equally vigilant in  our efforts to protect the intellectual property that has helped create the  strongest economy and largest middle class on the face of the Earth right here  in America.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R — Brighton, is chairman of the House  Intelligence Committee and represents Michigan’s 8th District.