U.S. and Russia Differ on Cyber Security Strategies: New Cold War of Sorts?

As many of our readers know, we have been covering cyber security for some time now, and we have – hopefully – helped shine a light on one of the major issues:  organized groups of hackers from Russia and Eastern Europe who are very motivated to bring down our cyber infrastructure.  Well, it seems that Russia and the U.S. have been working on a traty to help deal with this isssue, and it is not going that well.

Though both nations’ governments recognize the overall cyber security issue, they differ on how the international community should work together to stop cyber attacks.  According to this article that appeared in the NY Times, Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official. The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups.

Here’s what we think. Russia is a hot bed for hackers who want to bring down our cyber systems. Hackers are treated like rock stars locally. This is a major cultural problem that Russia does not want to address on the local law enforcement level. By contrast, the U.S. wants action, not meetings and propaganda. What do you all think about this?