US needs to do more to protect companies against state-sponsored cyberattacks, experts say
- Federal government is encouraged to strengthen safeguards, improve public-private cooperation and bolster regulations and cybersecurity strategy
- ‘We have to have an honest conversation in terms of cyberdefences, of who’s responsible for what, how are we going to divide up the responsibilities’
Washington needs to do a better job helping American companies protect against state-sponsored cyberattacks as they find themselves increasingly caught in the crossfire of US-China tech competition, several experts said on Wednesday.
The US government should strengthen safeguards, improve public-private cooperation and bolster regulations and cybersecurity strategy, panellists said at an event at the Centre for the National Interest, a Washington-based think tank.
A state-sponsored attack “really is the responsibility of the federal government. And that’s where we have to have an honest conversation in terms of cyberdefences, of who’s responsible for what, how are we going to divide up the responsibilities,” said Frances Townsend, a counterterrorism assistant to former US president George W Bush and now chief compliance officer with gaming company Activision Blizzard. “There hasn’t been that conversation.”
Cyberattacks have been a point of tension between the US and its allies and Beijing, as the former has accused China of carrying out a global cyberespionage campaign to steal intellectual property.
China denies such behaviour.
