The spate of Chinese hacking incidents targeting the U.S. has intensified in recent years. The theft of Anthem data and the breach in the databases of the Office of Personnel Management are just some of the high profile cases discovered this year. Now, it has been reported that President Barack Obama has decided on retaliating against China, particularly because of the extent and nature of the OPM heist.
The Obama administration came to this decision that the hacking attack was "so vast in scope and ambition that the usual practices for dealing with traditional espionage cases did not apply," according to The New York Times.
Officials involved in the decision were reportedly cautious about the nature of the response for fear of sparking serious cyberwar, with both sides engaging in bouts of retaliatory hacking attacks.
The White House is torn between two options: a symbolic response like a diplomatic protest or something more aggressive, The Verge reported. The diplomatic response could be in the form of ejecting an official of the Chinese diplomatic mission, while the aggressive response could include economic sanctions, criminal charges and cyber attacks such as the breach of China's much touted "great wall," which enables the Chinese government to censor what its citizens can see in the Internet. No concrete measure was made public so far.
Available information, however, indicates several characteristics of the retaliatory action. First, it will be public so as to encourage deterrence, The New York Times reported. Secondly, the action is expected to be proportionate or symmetric in scope. Finally, the White House appears to favor cautious options to avoid an escalation of conflict.
The announcement of the retaliatory action came after mounting pressure on Obama to act on the OPM hack. Legislators, for instance, are urging for immediate action, according to The Hill. "The way you deal with a bully on the playground is to punch them in the face and put them on the ground because the only thing they respect is power," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said.
