Ever since China’s ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacking operations against US telecom networks was uncovered, there’s been a lot of discussion about “hacking back”. Now, what actually constitutes hacking back is somewhat of an enigma. Some believe that the US needs to do to China what they’re doing to us, whilst others think going further and launching offensive cyber operations against their infrastructure may serve as a deterrence. I’d like to share my thoughts on both. Recently, I came across this Lawfare blog, titled “Why America Needs Its Own Salt Typhoon”. The article cites several quotes from Senator Mark Warner, who is Vice-President of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and one of very few senators paying close attention to cybersecurity. Your diplomatic pushback on the Chinese would be a hell of a lot stronger, if the U.S. could tell China, We’re going to go into your networks the exact same way you go into ours. It suggests two things:

1. That the US is not infiltrating Chinese networks in the same way they are doing to US networks.
   
2. That hacking Chinese networks would act as a deterrence against future Chinese state-sponsored intrusions.

Full opinion : The US needs a new cybersecurity strategy, but offensive cyber operations are unlikely to deter Chinese state-sponsored hacking and come with significant risk.