Rogers: America is losing the cyber war vs. China
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.
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