US Strike Force Charges China, Russia with Stealing Sensitive Tech

Let’s see if I understand this. China raids the officers of US company Capvision in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities last week, accusing the company of stealing Chinese secrets and this week the U.S. Department of Justice announced a round of indictments accusing Chinese (and Russian) nationals of attempting to steal the source code for Apple’s self driving car system.

Anyone see any similarities? I thought so.

In another case, a Chinese national working for a pair of software companies allegedly stole the source code for smart manufacturing – technology used for making parts for nuclear submarines and military aircraft. He used the stolen tech to set up his own business in China and is selling it to other Chinese companies.

In another complaint a Greek national worked for years to steal highly controlled tech, including quantum cryptography for Moscow’s military.

In the last case, the suspect was arrested in France. In the other two cases, the suspects fled and are at large.

The problem is that these indictments likely come too late – after the horse is out of the barn and the barn destroyed by a tornado.

We need U.S. companies to up their cybersecurity game so that they can detect these events sooner and hopefully stop the technology transfer and arrest the criminals.

The DoJ is working hard at it. The have created the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, working in 14 U.S. attorney offices, to try and stem the flow of information to adversaries. But they need your help to pull it off.

If you don’t know that your stuff has been stolen you can’t tell them and they can’t arrest anyone. Unfortunately, the buck STARTS with you.

Credit: The Record