China and the U.S. Agree to Cooperate in Combating Cyber Crimes

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the country has reached an agreement with the Chinese government on a framework for bilateral assistance in combating cyber crimes. This agreement was signed at the end of negotiations between officials from both countries, including U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and China's Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun, which took place in Washington in recent days. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that in addition to this agreement, China and the U.S. will conduct joint exercises in the coming months aimed at better understanding practical responses to these crimes and how the two countries can cooperate in executive areas. The recent talks and the resulting agreement are one of the achievements of a significant agreement between the two countries in September 2015 for cooperation in combating cyber crimes. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the next round of these discussions will be held in June of next year. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security also stated that this agreement will greatly impact the better implementation of security standards on the internet and demonstrates the commitment of both sides to honest and frank discussions in this area. In a statement released at the end of the China-U.S. talks, the significant issue of the massive theft of information from U.S. government employees that occurred last year was not mentioned. The Chinese state news agency recently claimed that the intrusion into the U.S. Federal Employment Information Center was the work of criminal hackers and had no connection to the Chinese government. According to a report on Wednesday by the Washington Post, several individuals have been arrested in connection with this cyber breach, through which information from over 22 million federal government employees was stolen. Sources close to the U.S. government say that this cyber operation had specific security objectives and appears to have been conducted with the support or oversight of government cyber units. U.S. officials state that they have not yet obtained evidence proving that this information was used for malicious purposes.