Profs & Pints DC: State-Sponsored Cyber Espionage

Profs and Pints DC presents: “State-Sponsored Cyber Espionage,” an examination of hackers as instruments of economic warfare, with William Akoto, assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service and leading expert on the political economy of cyber conflict.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-cyber-espionage .]

President Donald Trump has characterized his hardball approach to trade with China as needed partly to protect our nation from online economic espionage. But just how bad is that problem? Is “supply-chain decoupling” through tariffs and export controls going to do much to deter state-sponsored hacking?

Gain a deep understanding of how state-backed hackers operate and hijack markets and trade with Dr. William Akoto, whose work, published and covered in leading journals and news outlets, maps out the links between trade ties, proxy actors, and market reactions in such hacking campaigns.

He’ll talk about how state-backed hackers steal blueprints, jolt stock prices, tilt global trade, and otherwise wreak havoc. You’ll learn who the real targets of economic espionage are, why cyber-theft most often occurs between industrial peers rather than being something that lagging nations perpetrate upon economic leaders, and why countries steal trade secrets from trade partners.

Dr. Akoto will discuss how cyber proxy groups work and why some governments embrace them while others hold back. He’ll describe what happens on Wall Street when a major nation-state hack is discovered and how those market ripples can reach ordinary folk’s portfolio or affect global supply chains.

We’ll consider what steps firms, investors, and policymakers can take to blunt the strategic payoff of economic cyber espionage, and whether President Trump’s approach to the problem might make hacking worse. ( Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

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