In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and former Director of National Intelligence Admiral Mike McConnell, both of whom will be speaking at ASF 2012, address China's aggressive practices of corporate cyber espionage and theft.

The article, titled, "China's Cyber Thievery Is National Policy—And Must Be Challenged", elaborates upon the dangers Chinese cyber espionage poses to the U.S. and how China, as a nation that is still in the process of bridging its immense inequality gap and is still in the process of implementing development programs to help boost the standard of life for its populace, sees stealing innovations from competitors as more efficient than developing new technology on its own.

"The bottom line is this: China has a massive, inexpensive work force ravenous for economic growth. It is much more efficient for the Chinese to steal innovations and intellectual property—the source code of advanced economies—than to incur the cost and time of creating their own. They turn those stolen ideas directly into production, creating products faster and cheaper than the U.S. and others."

Chertoff, McConnell, and former Deputy Secretary for Defense William Lynn recommend that the U.S. recognize the long-term and detrimental effects of cyber attacks. Likewise, the U.S. should invest more in science, technology, engineering, and math education to counter that of competing environments. Lastly, American corporations must also do their part and identify and report incidents of cyber theft, while also boosting up their protection through the enhancement of employee computer skills.