State-Sponsored Cyberattacks Prompt Debate

By Damian Paletta 

The rapid rise of state-sponsored computer attacks has caught the U.S. government and many businesses off-guard, escalating a debate about whether more should be done to deter countries like Russia from penetrating sensitive networks.

The latest breach, reported Thursday by Yahoo Inc., affected roughly 500 million accounts and is considered one of the largest ever perpetrated.

U.S. officials wouldn't immediately confirm that the company's hack was a state-sponsored breach.

A number of countries are believed to have carried out cyberattacks against the U.S. government or companies, including North Korea, Iran, Russia and China. All have denied perpetrating any attacks.

U.S. officials consider Russia and China to have the most sophisticated hackers, but there are also criminal elements working within each country that are capable of carrying out large-scale breaches without government involvement.

This can make it harder for law-enforcement and intelligence officials to determine who ordered the breach, potentially giving foreign governments cover when the U.S. considers how to respond or retaliate.

The White House is in the midst of one of these debates now, wrestling with how to respond to a large-scale cyberattack earlier this year that stole records from the Democratic National Committee, its affiliates, and others.

Three internet outlets have leaked some of the stolen documents online.

The DNC breach was first reported in June, but it wasn't until Tuesday that U.S. Director of National Intelligence suggested publicly that Russia was likely behind the operation. Russian officials have denied involvement, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the leaked records served a public service.

Chinese hackers have posed a major challenge to the U.S. government, though senior U.S. officials believe China has ratcheted back its use of cyberattacks since President Barack Obama and Chinese leaders agreed last year that the countries wouldn't use information stolen by hackers to benefit domestic companies.

The agreement was awkward: China and the U.S. stated they had never used such information in the first place, but U.S. officials said that after the agreement, they have seen a marked change in China's behavior.

The U.S.-China talks were prompted, however, by a giant theft of personnel records from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, something U.S. officials accused China of carrying out. Chinese officials have denied carrying out the theft.

A number of lawmakers in Congress and senior military leaders have said the U.S. needs to more clearly define how it will respond to state-sponsored cyberattacks as a way to warn foreign actors about the repercussions for these intrusions.

This internal discussion, which has gone on for more than a year, has moved slowly, however, in part because it could expose details about the U.S. government's own arsenal of cyberweapons, something considered a closely guarded secret.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2016 20:26 ET (00:26 GMT)

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