Cybersecurity

World’s richest nations agree hacking for commercial benefit is off-limits

The leaders of the world’s richest and most powerful nations on Monday pledged for the first time not to conduct cyber economic espionage, a move that could one day greatly reduce the theft of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of commercial secrets by foreign governments to benefit their countries’ own industries.

The agreement reached at the Group of 20 conference in Antalya, Turkey, marks the first major, high-level international consensus aimed at reducing tensions in cyberspace. Last year, the Justice Department announced indictments against five Chinese military hackers for allegedly stealing secrets from solar-power firms and steelmakers.