The U.S. and China may emerge from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit with some progress made on cyber concerns. President Barack Obama said he and his counterpart had reached a “common understanding” to fight the cyber-theft of intellectual property, according to the New York Times.
However, Obama also emphasized that the two leaders still have broad disagreement over how to stem the tide of Chinese cyberthefts, and over America’s potential cyber-response.
The leaders agreed that neither government would “conduct or knowingly support” cybertheft of trade secrets or other intellectual property.
Earlier, White House and Defense officials said that an agreement rising to the level of a formal treaty was unlikely to emerge from the talks.
“I think that some cyber arms control treaties would be desirable. I think some standards of conduct…accepted internationally are desirable. Do I think they’re feasible? I think they’re feasible but not in any short term,” Terry Halvorsen, DoD CIO, said at an even earlier in September.
RELATED: Learn more about securing defense and federal networks at C4ISR & Networks and Federal Times’ CyberCon 2015, held Nov. 18 at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, Virginia.
