A Post-Snowden world? Criminalizing Chinese cyberespionage

A Post-Snowden world? Criminalizing Chinese cyberespionage

May 19 2014 | http://opiniojuris.org/2014/05/19/post-snowden-world-criminalizing-chinese-cyberespionage/
by Duncan Hollis
Three quick (and thus tentative) thoughts on the BIG news out of the Justice Department a few minutes ago, announcing criminal charges against five officers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for hacking various U.S. industries, including Westinghouse and US Steel.  The Justice Department offered fairly detailed descriptions of how the hackers obtained information that had direct economic consequences for US companies, whether in terms of stealing design specs or pricing plans.  As a result, I don’t have much doubt that the evidence establishes behavior violating U.S. cyber crime laws as written. That said, this is still, as Holder himself admitted, an unprecedented move.  It’s not every day the U.S. government charges military officers with criminal behavior that was presumptively authorized by the foreign government itself.  Doing so suggests, not too subtly, that the real criminal here was China