White House and India Consider Counterhack Measures in Foggy Bottom

Top Obama administration and Indian government leaders met at the State Department this week to hash out issues concerning global information security. 

The 2015 U.S.-India Cyber Dialogue, which occurred Aug. 11-12, covered matters including efforts to crack down on cyber criminals, ways to enhance the sharing of threat alerts, and incident response. 

U.S. cyber czar Michael Daniel and India’s Deputy National Security Adviser Arvind Gupta helmed the summit. 

The bilateral discussions also delved into norms of behavior by countries in cyberspace. 

"The two delegations identified a variety of opportunities for increased collaboration on cybersecurity capacity-building, cybersecurity research and development, combatting cybercrime, international security, and Internet governance, and intend to pursue an array of follow-on activities to bolster their cybersecurity partnership and achieve concrete outcomes," White House and Indian officials said in a joint statement Friday. 

Representatives from State, the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury and Commerce also participated in the event, the fourth in a series.

Next year, the two countries plan to convene for cyber talks in Delhi. 

Perhaps cybersecurity standards will come up in conversation at that time. 

The Obama administration expects to help broker international standards for secure online transactions, according to a draft Commerce report released on Aug. 10

The proposal by Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology recommends, among other things, the U.S. government should "ensure dialogue and information exchange takes place between senior federal cybersecurity officials and their counterparts in key partner countries on cybersecurity standards development activities."

The purpose of the guidelines is to ensure IT security technologies in countries worldwide are compatible, as well as to strengthen trust in online communications, NIST officials said in the draft.

"Such standards are especially important in the interconnected world where products, processes, and services are developed and delivered throughout global supply chains that provide acquirers little transparency into supplier practices beyond the prime contractor," a preliminary report states.

Many cyber outfits see new business opportunities in India where cyber theft is a growing problem. 

A U.S. Army-seeded cybersecurity firm called TaaSera last month opened up shop in the country, home to one of the world's largest IT services sectors.

The number of cybercrimes in India might double this year, to reach 300,000, Reuters reports. FireEye, a federal and commercial cybersecurity provider, said it expects to spend $50 million on an India research and development center by 2018, the news service added. 

(Image via Mark Van Scyoc/ Shutterstock.com)