Xi Jinping, China’s president and former U.S. President Barack Obama shake hands during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015.
Chinese hacking of U.S. companies for intellectual property (IP) purposes has largely dropped since a 2015 agreement with the U.S. government. However, according to cybersecurity company FireEye Inc., cyberattacks from the Chinese government related to other business activities are on the rise, and law firms and general counsel are among the targets.
An April 2018 report from FireEye Inc. concluded that while Chinese IP theft “declined significantly” upon the September 2015 “Obama-Xi Agreement,” there has been an uptick in cybertheft of information related to contracts, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and company bid prices. The report, which tracked global incident response investigations between 2016 and late 2017, also noted “a surge in cyber espionage campaigns” against law firms.
