China Forges Cyber Agreement with the UK

China and the United Kingdom has agreed, during a joint press conference, to refrain from conducting cyber-espionage activities against each other’s commercial companies, The Guardian reported.  According to the article, both nations agreed not to steal commercial secrets using cyber-espionage.  This follows a similar agreement between China and the U.S. (More on the U.S.-China agreement can be found here).  It is not clear yet whether the two nations actually signed an agreement, or simply have an understanding.  Regardless, British Prime Minister David Cameron emphasized the importance of the agreement as a first step in developing greater security relations with China, the report added.  The agreement comes amid concerns from the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (“GCHQ”) that a “disturbing” level of cyber-attacks targeting British companies originate mainly from China and Russia, the report continued.

It will be interesting to see how many other countries will make similar pacts with China, especially after a report surfaced suggesting that hackers affiliated with the Chinese government attempted to access the networks of several U.S. companies after President Obama and President Xi agreed to cease such conduct.  (More on that issue can be found here).  Additionally, another report implicated a hacker group based in China in the hacking of a non-profit research institution.  (More on this issue can be found here).

It is unknown what types of companies were targeted in the first case, but the non-profit institution in the second case conducts extensive research for the U.S. Department of Defense.  The agreements, at least from the information released, only address cyber-espionage against commercial business, not espionage against governments, which is traditionally an accepted practice not prohibited by international law.  It seems that the line between commercial businesses and government has become a bit blurred.  Do the agreements prohibit cyber-espionage on commercial businesses even when they conduct work for the government, or does conducting government work bring those private companies out of the commercial realm?