The United States remains ill-prepared to combat state-backed cyber intrusions from China and lawmakers should look at whether U.S.-based companies be allowed to 'hack back' to recover or wipe stolen data, a congressional advisory body said Tuesday.
That's the primary recommendation of this year's report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that examines the national security implications of the relationship between the two world powers.
The report says China's increasing use of cyber espionage has already cost U.S. companies tens of billions of dollars in lost sales and expenses in repairing the damage from hacking. It says in many cases, stolen trade secrets have been turned over to Chinese government-owned companies.
The commission, typically very critical of Beijing, is appointed by both parties in Congress but makes no bones about the "inadequate" U.S. response, saying China has also infiltrated a wide swath of U.S. government computer networks.
FULL STORY HERE