Week ahead: Cyber spotlight back on China

Cybersecurity policy is taking an international turn.

The government and 2016 presidential candidates are all looking abroad when it comes to cybersecurity — in particular at China.

The digital adversary was thrust back into the spotlight after the most recent GOP debate and with the administration’s upcoming cyber meetings with Beijing officials.

{mosads}The Asian power was widely blamed for the massive digital theft of over 20 million federal workers’ data over the summer. It’s also believed Beijing is orchestrating a broad cyber campaign to pilfer U.S. corporate secrets.

China’s cyber aggression came to the fore during Wednesday’s Republican debate, after the topic was sidelined through the first three tilts.

Almost unanimously, the candidates called for the United States to take offensive action against China for its persistent hacking.

GOP front-runner Donald Trump even vowed in a policy paper released this week to implement a “zero tolerance” policy for China’s digital theft of U.S. corporate secrets.

The Obama administration is hoping to use more diplomatic channels by working with China on a recent agreement the two sides struck to eliminate corporate hacking.

The Department of Homeland Security’s deputy secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, was in China over the weekend for the first batch of talks on implementing the September pact between Presidents Xi Jinping and Obama.

The meetings, to take place in Beijing, are part of preparations for the first ministerial-level dialogue on cybersecurity between the U.S. and China, scheduled for Dec. 1 and 2 in Washington, D.C.

Elsewhere, European Union officials are currently in D.C. in an effort to hammer out a new U.S.-EU data transfer agreement to resurrect the recently abolished “Safe Harbor” program.

For 15 years, Safe Harbor allowed U.S. firms to legally transport EU data across borders after “self certifying” that they met the stricter EU data security standards.

But the EU high court in October struck down the pact, arguing that pervasive U.S. surveillance programs rendered it untenable.

Early talks in D.C. indicate European negotiators want the new agreement to force U.S. businesses to report intelligence agency requests for information on European citizens. The request is a sticking point for both sides.

Privacy groups though are mobilizing to warn that a tentative outline of the new deal still lacks adequate privacy protections and could cause it to be struck down yet again.

On Capitol Hill, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on the Education Department’s information security, focusing on the sensitive information it maintains as part of its federal student aid programs.

The Oversight subcommittee on information technology will hold a hearing on the “internet of cars” on Thursday.

Lawmakers have recently raised concerns about car hacking.

More stories:

A federal judge sided with the State Department against a conservative legal advocacy group trying to speed up the release of some Hillary Clinton emails: http://bit.ly/1iZlxWL

Hacktivists are getting harder to differentiate from more serious threats such as terrorist groups and nation-state cyber warriors: http://bit.ly/1OJ3hiD

The team behind the world’s largest anonymous online network is accusing the FBI of paying security researchers at least $1 million to uncover the identities of its users: http://bit.ly/1O7mCXV

One of the leading providers of prison phone services has been recording calls between inmates and their attorneys, according to an anonymous hacker: http://bit.ly/1Le8U0P