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> Hickton opened an investigation and quickly set his sights on a special unit of the Chinese military — a secretive group known as Unit 61398. Investigators we

> Hickton opened an investigation and quickly set his sights on a special unit of the Chinese military — a secretive group known as Unit 61398. Investigators were able to watch as the unit's officers, sitting in an office building in Shanghai, broke into the computer systems of American companies at night, stopped for an hour break at China's lunchtime and then continued in the Chinese afternoon. > ... > But when Hickton went to the companies, eager for them to become plaintiffs, he ran into a problem. None of the companies wanted any part of it. Hickton says they had too much money on the line in China. There really ought to be a law that mandates that 1) companies disclose any and all hacking incidents/data breaches they become aware of and 2) co-operate with the government in the investigation of those breaches. Though I'm a little confused why they would need the "the companies to become plaintiffs." Wouldn't hacking be a criminal matter that's would be directly prosecuted by the government? Did they want to go against the hackers both criminally and civilly?

atomical 8y ago
Seems like a dangerous precedent. Someone could move to China and hack US companies and get away with it.
pm90 8y ago
> Wouldn't hacking be a criminal matter that's would be directly prosecuted by the government? Did they want to go against the hackers both criminally and civilly? The Justice System in the US is ultimately centered around the Jury. To prove criminality, you need to convince the Jury that a crime was committed. And they are much more likely to empathize and agree with the prosecutors if they have a large number of American companies agreeing with the prosecutors that the Chinese entities stole from them.
subcosmos 8y ago
Why is it that intelligence agencies are still conducting their activities during their countries working hours? You'd figure it would be easier to find nocturnal neckbeards anyways.
- scintill76 8y ago
  In this case, the timezones probably line up to make Chinese working hours the best time to do this work.

atomical 8y ago

Seems like a dangerous precedent. Someone could move to China and hack US companies and get away with it.

pm90 8y ago

> Wouldn't hacking be a criminal matter that's would be directly prosecuted by the government? Did they want to go against the hackers both criminally and civilly? The Justice System in the US is ultimately centered around the Jury. To prove criminality, you need to convince the Jury that a crime was committed. And they are much more likely to empathize and agree with the prosecutors if they have a large number of American companies agreeing with the prosecutors that the Chinese entities stole from them.

subcosmos 8y ago

Why is it that intelligence agencies are still conducting their activities during their countries working hours? You'd figure it would be easier to find nocturnal neckbeards anyways.

scintill76 8y ago
In this case, the timezones probably line up to make Chinese working hours the best time to do this work.