CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, published evidence that shows China has already violated an agreement that President Obama and President Xi recently agreed to on September 25.
The agreement states that neither country will “conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.”
CrowdStrike continued to surveil hacking attempts into their customers’ networks, and in the three weeks following the announcement of the Cyber agreement, the company has detected numerous hacking attempts which they have traced back to the Chinese government “with a high degree of confidence.” It was able to prevent the attacks, so the hackers were unable to retrieve any information.
The company produced a timeline that displays attempted intrusions alongside President Xi’s visit to the U.S. It shows 11 attempted hacks after the agreement was announced, all in either the technology or pharmaceutical sectors. The first one occurred the day after the announcement; before Xi had even left the country. The list is not exhaustive and it does not include all hacking attempts that the company has traced back to the Chinese government, just those into commercial entities that fall under the purview of the agreement.