U.S.-China Cyber Agreement Does Not Deter Hacking

(TNS) -- Chinese hacking of U.S. companies that appears to be aimed at stealing intellectual property has continued despite an agreement reached last month by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping that aimed to halt such attacks.

Online security firm Crowdstrike said Monday that its systems had detected prevented intrusions into companies committed by "actors we have affiliated with the Chinese government."

"Seven of the companies are firms in the technology or pharmaceuticals sectors, where the primary benefit of the intrusions seems clearly aligned to facilitate theft of intellectual property and trade secrets, rather than to conduct traditional national-security related intelligence collection, which the cyber agreement does not prohibit," Crowdstrike said.

The White House said that the U.S. government was "closely monitoring" China's actions and noted national security officials were coordinating with private sector entities like Crowdstrike.

During meetings last month at the White House, Obama and Xi agreed not to engage in government-sponsored theft of intellectual property and business secrets in cyberspace.

The U.S. and China agreed to not "conduct or knowingly support" cyber-theft of intellectual property or other business information, and will work together to develop "appropriate norms of state behaviour in cyberspace within the international community."

©2015 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.