LOS ANGELES, June 8 (UPI) — Cybersecurity and the rules to deal with it will grow in importance as the United States and China develop their relationship, U.S. President Barack Obama said.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping during informal talks in California, Obama said the increasing use of computers would require new rules, The New York Times reported Friday.
He termed the issues surrounding cybersecurity “uncharted waters,” and said it is critical “to arrive at a firm understanding of how we work together on these issues.”
Computer-driven attacks were a matter of international concern, he said, and required “common rules of the road.”
Obama separated the controversy over the National Security Agency gathering telephone data on Americans from cyberattacks on U.S. companies and federal agencies. The cyberattacks are about “theft and hacking,” he said, while the NSA actions are concerned with “identifying potential terrorists or criminals.”
Xi noted recent media attention to cyberattacks had created the sense they originated mainly from China and that cybersecurity was “the biggest problem in the China-U.S. relationship.”
Without directly addressing those reports, the Chinese leader said “we need to pay close attention to this issue and study ways to effectively resolve this issue.”
He said the two nations could work “in a pragmatic way” to address the problem and noted a working group had been established to discuss cyber security issues.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
