EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Manufacturer Wants Commerce Dept. to Penalize China for Cyberattack

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/07/01/us_manufacturer_wants_commerce_dept_to_penalize_china_for_cyberattack_0

By Shane Harris
Foreign Policy
July 1, 2014

A U.S. solar panel manufacturer whose business secrets were allegedly 
stolen by Chinese computer hackers has asked the U.S. government to 
investigate the matter, setting in motion a process that could see the 
United States impose trade penalties for the first time in response to 
state-sponsored cyber-espionage against an American company.

In a filing with the Commerce Department on Tuesday, July 1, the U.S. 
subsidiary of German company SolarWorld, which builds solar panels and 
equipment, asked officials to investigate allegations contained in a 
recent criminal indictment accusing five members of the People's 
Liberation Army with hacking the company's computers and stealing 
proprietary information. Prosecutors say that the hackers took 
SolarWorld's price lists, product designs, and communications between the 
company and its lawyers in a series of computer incursions that began in 
2012.

"The [government of China's] theft of SolarWorld's trade and financial 
information has inflicted, and will likely continue to inflict significant 
and, as yet, unquantified harm on SolarWorld," the company told the 
Commerce Department. But the hackers weren't just after SolarWorld's 
product information. They also allegedly stole information about a trade 
case that SolarWorld has been pressing against Chinese solar panel 
manufacturers, which it accuses of unfairly dumping their cheap products 
in the U.S. market. The compromised information could give Chinese 
officials a peek at the evidence the company planned to use in its trade 
case.

"As the indictment makes clear, the focus of much of the cyber theft was 
related to SolarWorld's trade remedy cases against Chinese solar 
manufacturers," the company said. This suggests that the hacking has a 
"direct bearing" on the Commerce Department's investigation of Chinese 
dumping, which has been occurring for years.

[...]



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