NYSE Shuts Down(Chinese Cyberattack): How To Respond?

[ralph124c]

Suppose that one day, the NYSE shuts down-no orders can be placed, and traders find that their information is wiped out-blue screens everywhere.
This is later traced to a hacker in China.
Later analysis points to the Chinese government.
When confronted with the evidence, the Chinese say something like “this was the act of a mentally disturbed person, the Government of China has no responsibility for the matter.”
What would the US do in such a case?
How do you “retaliate” in a “cyber war” situation?
This happens again-losses at the NYSE now exceed $100 billion-what would the US do?

[Little_Nemo]

There are various diplomatic and economic sanctions that the American government can take against China that fall short of war.

[Smapti]

What is the Chinese government’s motivation to economically sabotage its biggest and most important trading partner?

[bengangmo]

@ralph124c

Suppose that one day, the NYSE shuts down-no orders can be placed, and traders find that their information is wiped out-blue screens everywhere.
This is later traced to a hacker in China.
Later analysis points to the Chinese government.
When confronted with the evidence, the Chinese say something like “this was the act of a mentally disturbed person, the Government of China has no responsibility for the matter.”
What would the US do in such a case?
How do you “retaliate” in a “cyber war” situation?
This happens again-losses at the NYSE now exceed $100 billion-what would the US do?

This may be a stupid question - but why would the losses exceed 100 billion? the companies are still there right? Factories are still producing - shares can’t change hands though

[Duckster]

There are some who believe World War III has already begun. It’s cyber warfare and the two principal combatants are China and the USA. Possibly Russia as well. Any “attack” on the NYSE is just one in a long list of attacks that have been going on for quite some time.

Others think we’re not there yet.

[Trom]

The NYSE could stop trading and the stock market would be fine. There are enough other trading networks to facilitate trade.

[Buck_The_Diver]

Tom Clancy has your answer.

Debt of Honor

[brickbacon]

I think the losses you are speculating about are absurdly high assuming there was only a temporary shut down. That said, I would imagine the US would first ask China to pay restitution. Then they would escalate it, if necessary, in a slow and prudent manner. Going into a real war would not be an option for something like this, especially since the US can engage in cyber war as good as the next guy if need be.

[Duckster]

Manipulating the NYSE might be just a parlor trick when you consider:

On at least two occasions, hackers have taken over U.S. satellites and targeted their command-and-control systems, a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission revealed today. The incidents involved two Earth observation satellites. While it may be difficult to trace who hacked the satellites, U.S. officials acknowledged the incidents had to come from a nation power.

– snip –

The report noted that some of the malicious cyber activity targeting the satellites involved NASA’s Terra EOS satellite being targeted in June 2008 and again in October 2008. The June incident resulted in the satellite being interfered with for two minutes and the October incident lasted at least nine minutes. The report noted that in both instances, “The responsible party achieved all steps required to command the satellite but did not issue commands.”

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