Why Stop Blaming China for OPM?

There have been several articles in different press outlets saying the White House is no longer pointing the finger at China on the OPM hack.  They are not blaming anyone else, just not mentioning OPM as a Chinese hack.  So, why could that be?

Ellen Nakashima, a writer for the Washington Post with good sources in cyber, says [U.S. decides against publicly blaming China for data hack, 21 July 2015]  it might be because the government is reluctant to reveal its sources for knowing it is China.  She also says they have not "engaged in any direct retaliation against China", which essentially allows them to get away with it.

Shane Harris at the DailyBeast [Team Obama Knows China Is Behind the OPM Hack. Why Won’t They Say So?, 20 July 2015]  said it is due to "sensitive international negotiations", and the matter of compromising sources and methods.  Both of these stories are indicative of why we have no deterrent capability against countries like Russia and China who seem to be able to rip off our secrets with impunity.

As I said in my previous note on testifying at the U.S. China Economic and Security Committee, the thrust of what was being discussed at that session led me to believe that the White House was looking for a treaty with China, similar to the one China did with Russia.  Given the history, this is a really bad idea.

I certainly hope this administration was not holding back on mentioning China because it was seeking a treaty, but you never know, given the willingness to engage in a dubious non-treaty with Iran over nuclear weapons.  It turns out that parts of that non-treaty were being worked out between Iran and the U.N. and neither side were releasing anything.  Part of that, according to our Secretary of State's testimony yesterday, was not discussed with the U.S. and barred U.S. inspectors from sites in Iran.  We got to see how well the U.N. works when the chemical weapons treaty with Syria managed to do almost nothing to stop Syria from developing new types of weapons and using them on their own people.

Cyber protection and deterrence is not going to be based on a treaty.  It has to be based on a credible retaliation strategy.  The Chinese have to believe that they will suffer consequences if they continue to hack the U.S. companies and government activities, like OPM.  So far, we have indicated to them that we have no strategy and we have no deterrent capability.   Dennis F. Poindexter books at Amazon