美国国家公共电台 NPR Charges Against Chinese Hackers Are Now Common. Why Don't They Deter Cyberattacks?

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

All right. The Justice Department has brought many cases against suspected Chinese hackers¹ by now. They're accused of stealing American companies' intellectual property and trade secrets. But cyber theft, by all accounts, continues at a rapid pace. So is the Justice Department's strategy working? Here's NPR justice reporter Ryan Lucas.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE²: May of 2014 and front-page news out of the Justice Department.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The United States has charged China's military with cyber espionage³. Five Chinese officers are accused of hacking⁴ into big American companies for their trade secrets.

LUCAS: It was a big deal because it was the first time the U.S. had charged state-sponsored actors for hacking American companies. Now, fast-forward to this past December. Here's President Trump's deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, announcing new charges against two more suspected Chinese hackers.

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ROD ROSENSTEIN: America and its many allies know what China is doing. We know why they're doing it. And in some cases, we even know exactly who is sitting at the keyboard perpetrating these crimes.

LUCAS: It is a scene that has played out repeatedly over the past five years. The Justice Department has announced charges against suspected hackers allegedly working at the behest of the Chinese government to steal American intellectual property. Despite the slew⁵ of indictments⁷, officials say China has not stopped targeting American companies. And in nearly all of the hacking cases, the accused are in China and unlikely to ever see the inside of a U.S. courtroom. That has led some observers to question just how effective this indictment⁶ strategy is.

ADAM SEGAL: It does not seem to have stopped the Chinese, and it certainly doesn't seem to have imposed any cost on them to get them to the point where they think it's not worth the attacks.

LUCAS: That's Adam Segal. He directs the Digital and Cyberspace⁸ Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Segal is not alone in his criticism. Jack⁹ Goldsmith is a Harvard law professor and former DOJ official in the George W. Bush administration. Goldsmith argues that because indictments do not pose much of a cost, they have failed to deter¹⁰ China from further hacking. The charges may embarrass the defendants¹¹ and show that the U.S. can pinpoint¹² who's behind the hacking, Goldsmith says. But those costs are paltry¹³ compared to the billions of dollars' worth of secrets the Chinese are allegedly stealing.

JACK LANDMAN GOLDSMITH: I would say that, to date, the United States has not found a strategy - over many, many years after much discussion and much thought and much effort, it has not found a strategy to get the Chinese to tamp¹⁴ this down.

LUCAS: Supporters acknowledge that China has not stopped hacking, but they say indictments have had a positive effect. They note that a year after the DOJ first brought charges, China reached an agreement with the Obama administration to not conduct cyber economic espionage. Officials and cybersecurity experts say the pace and scale of Chinese cyberattacks dropped off after the agreement.

The hacking has ramped¹⁵ back up since then, according to U.S. officials. Although some of the current hacking may fall into a gray zone that is arguably not covered by the 2015 deal. The indictments also have been critical in publicizing information that previously¹⁶ had been kept under lock and key by the U.S. government. That has helped raise public awareness¹⁷, particularly among American companies, about China's pervasive¹⁸ hacking.

JOHN HULTQUIST: What the indictments do is they put all this information about this in the hands of the people who are now being targeted.

LUCAS: That's John Hultquist. He's the director of intelligence analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye.

HULTQUIST: So it's really important to get this into their hands and in some cases even prove to them that it's happening.

LUCAS: That information has prompted some American and other Western companies to reconsider doing business in China or with Chinese partners. Hultquist says the indictments also have had a disruptive effect.

HULTQUIST: The adversary¹⁹ seems to have, at least for a short term, changed up operations, burned their infrastructure²⁰, had to change their tooling, go back to square one.

LUCAS: John Carlin led the Justice Department's National Security Division in the Obama administration. His new book, "Dawn Of The Code War," details how the DOJ built its first case against Chinese hackers back in 2014. He says indictments should not be viewed as a solution on their own. Instead, he says, they send a public signal while at the same time laying the groundwork for the U.S. to use other tools to get China to stop.

JOHN CARLIN: But if we're going to change this behavior, it has to be part of a larger strategy of raising the cost and includes all the instruments of U.S. power, including the power to sanction under the Treasury²¹ Department.

LUCAS: To date, the U.S. Treasury has not used that power against China over its cyber industrial espionage. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.

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1 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

4 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

5 slew   

v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多

参考例句：

• He slewed the car against the side of the building.他的车滑到了大楼的一侧，抵住了。
• They dealt with a slew of other issues.他们处理了大量的其他问题。

6 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

7 indictments   

n.（制度、社会等的）衰败迹象( indictment的名词复数 )；刑事起诉书；公诉书；控告

参考例句：

• A New York jury brought criminal indictments against the founder of the organization. 纽约的一个陪审团对这个组织的创始人提起了多项刑事诉讼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These two indictments are self-evident and require no elaboration. 这两条意义自明，无须多说。 来自互联网

8 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

9 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

10 deter   

vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住

参考例句：

• Failure did not deter us from trying it again.失败并没有能阻挡我们再次进行试验。
• Dogs can deter unwelcome intruders.狗能够阻拦不受欢迎的闯入者。

11 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

12 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

13 paltry   

adj.无价值的，微不足道的

参考例句：

• The parents had little interest in paltry domestic concerns.那些家长对家里鸡毛蒜皮的小事没什么兴趣。
• I'm getting angry;and if you don't command that paltry spirit of yours.我要生气了，如果你不能振作你那点元气。

14 tamp   

v.捣实，砸实

参考例句：

• Then I tamp down the soil with the back of a rake.然后我用耙子的背将土壤拍实。
• Philpott tamped a wad of tobacco into his pipe.菲尔波特往烟斗里塞了一卷碎烟叶。

15 ramped   

土堤斜坡( ramp的过去式和过去分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• With the arrival of George Lucas, the pace has ramped up. 随着乔治·卢卡斯的到来，速度大大加快。
• They also sold corporate bonds as the global financial crisis ramped up. 在全球金融危机加剧之际，他们还抛售了公司债券。

16 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

17 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

18 pervasive   

adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的

参考例句：

• It is the most pervasive compound on earth.它是地球上最普遍的化合物。
• The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.汽车尾气对人类健康所构成的有害影响是普遍的，并且难以估算。

19 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

20 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

21 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。