US To Charge Chinese Military Employees With Hacking

jfruh (300774) writes "The U.S. federal government will announce today indictments of several employees of the Chinese military with hacking into computers to steal industrial secrets. The indictments will be the first of their kind against employees of a foreign government. Among the trade secrets allegedly stolen by the accused are information about a nuclear power plant design and a solar panel company's cost and pricing data."

Jurisdiction

[Richy_T]

The US govt doesn't know the meaning of the word. Sovereignty's another.

Re:Vs the NSA

[gl4ss]

yeah it's weird in that regard that they went for opening that pandoras box... the chinese will just indict in response.

Talk about

[Ukab the Great]

the pot and the kettle.

Does that mean ...

[Alain Williams]

that I can sue the NSA for trying to crack my machines and that the USA will extradite the NSA employees to the UK so that they can be tried in our courts ? Do the people at the USA DOJ understand the meaning of the word ''irony'' ?

This is more outlandish than even something that most political satire writers would have dreamed up.

Do as I say, not...

[ThomasBHardy]

Does anyone else find this particularly ironic and posturing after the "Cisco Complains To Obama About NSA Adding Spyware To Routers" article earlier?

Very Bad Precedent

[HighOrbit]

Except for the special cases of crimes against humanity and "non official cover" spies, soldiers and civil servents should not be held criminally liable for doing their jobs or executing policy set by their superiors. Since we don't want our own military and government employees charged with 'crimes' for carrying out their duties, this is a very bad idea because it sets the precedent.

Re:Jurisdiction

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

These are political moves. Said actual people better not leave China or Chinese-friendly (extradition-wise) nations.

Yes it won't do much but it is a statement that your government ordered it is not gonna help you.

Re:Good luck with that.

[Anonymous Coward]

"2016 can't come fast enough." You're an idiot if you think that changes ANYTHING AT ALL.

Re:Very Bad Precedent

[jbmartin6]

On the contrary, every person should be held criminally liable for their actions regardless of instructions from "superiors". This would be an excellent precedent, let's get rid of the idea that a person can hide behind an organization or some other conspiracy and not be responsible for their own actions.

Re:Very Bad Precedent

[mlyle]

If it's unjust enough, yes.

First, if we hold people immune/not morally responsible for whatever they do as part of misbehaving organizations, we've removed one of the final checks and balances from these organizations. We've effectively capitulated, saying that when you get enough people together they can turn into a crushing, evil leviathan, as long as there's not a blatantly clear organizational criminal conspiracy. People should be people, making (and held accountable for) moral judgments about the actions they take.

My former boss made a mistake with the whole AMT thing. He exercised below market rate stock options and held the stock until the value went to 0. He made no actual money, but ended up with a tax liability and IRS employees systematically liquidating his assets. There are supposed to be things in the organization to protect against this-- an ombudsman, proscriptions against proceeding with such blatantly unfair and unaffordable collection practices, etc. He's in his late 60s and they just took everything. I think the people who didn't pull the organizational lever to stop the process, presumably because it wasn't helping them meet their collection targets, should be in prison.

Re:Good luck with that.

[SuricouRaven]

There isn't much that can be done in response to Russia. Military action is out of the question: One does not start an open war with a nuclear superpower lightly. Economic sanctions hurt both sites, and Europe needs Russia as much as Russia needs Europe. They supply the gas that keeps the lights on.

Re:Oblig frosty

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

US?

What a bunch of arrogant, hypocritical pricks. The whole NSA SHITHOUSE [reuters.com] comes down around their ears, with backdoored network devices [theguardian.com] and eavesdropping on world leaders [spiegel.de] - then these paragons of fucking virtue blame "cyber war" on individuals in a foreign government?

Why the fuck don't they haul meglomaniac Keith Alexander off of his fucking starship [techdirt.com] and drag his sorry arse, along with Elmer Fudd [examiner.com]^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Michael Hayden, into the dock?

China has a developed diplomatic culture. This type of International behavior from the US is pure "play at home" propaganda, with the diplomatic effect of a bull in a china-shop, so to speak. Offensive, ignorant, unnecessary, and duplicitous.