The Justice Department last week announced a sweeping new effort to address tech-enabled threats posed by countries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as it shuttered a more narrow Trump-era initiative.
The move comes as the department ended a program called the China Initiative, launched in 2018 under President Donald Trump, that was aimed at addressing Beijing’s aggressive cyber-enabled economic espionage, which includes Beijing’s efforts to attract top scientific talent from around the world to work in China.
“We confront everything from profit-driven efforts to steal trade secrets and military technology to state-sponsored efforts in cyber targeting our critical infrastructure,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen said late last week, explaining the broader effort. “Hostile foreign governments assault our democratic and economic institutions in pursuit of strategic competitive advantage.”
