US cybercrime head wary to fault countries

Countries accused of harboring criminal computer hackers are victims themselves, the new US cybersecurity policy chief said on Thursday, suggesting that the US would not take a more confrontational tack against China and Russia.

"There's a perspective that the government is somehow protecting bad guys in one place or another. I don't know that's the case," said Howard Schmidt, who took up his post as White House cybersecurity co-ordinator in January. "All the governments are struggling with this," he said. "It's a very difficult thing to do because you never know whose fingers are really on the keyboard." Schmidt and other White House officials this week rejected Russian calls that cyberconflicts and hacking be handled through arms control treaties, saying that such matters were a law enforcement issue and should be dealt with through co-ordinated police efforts. "Making sure they are doing a full-blown investigation and conferring with our law enforcement is the biggest thing we can do to help this issue," Mr Schmidt said in reference to the recent attacks by Chinese hackers against Google and other US-based technology companies. "We've been very clear on the fact that this is not tolerable, not only against our society but also other societies. One of the key things has been going back to the countries that it appears it's coming from and saying: 'If it's not you, you need to investigate this.'"