A study found that Chinese hacking of American companies sharply dropped off in the year before President Obama and President Xi agreed to curb cyberespionage. This is attributed to Xi's efforts to bring the military, a main sponsor of attacks, under control. While some targets are still hit, the daily barrage has diminished due to public pressure from indictments of Chinese officers. The agreement between Obama and Xi narrowly covers intellectual property theft but not ordinary espionage against government targets.

2. • WASHINGTON — Nine months after President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China agreed to a broad crackdown on cyberespionage
aimed at curbing the theft of intellectual property, the first detailed study of Chinese hacking has found a sharp drop-off in almost daily
raids on Silicon Valley firms, military contractors and other commercial targets.
• But the study, conducted by the iSight intelligence unit of FireEye, a company that manages large network breaches, also concluded that
the drop-off began a year before Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi announced their accord in the White House Rose Garden. In a conclusion that is
largely echoed by American intelligence officials, the study said the change is part of Mr. Xi’s broad effort to bring the Chinese military,
which is considered one of the main sponsors of the attacks, further under his control.
• As a result, the same political forces that may be alleviating the theft of data from American companies are also responsible for Mr. Xi’s
stunningly swift crackdown on the Chinese media, bloggers and others who could challenge the Communist Party.
• “It’s a mixed bag,” said Kevin Mandia, the founder of Mandiant, now part of FireEye, which first detailed the activities of a People’s
Liberation Army cyber-arm, called Unit 61398, that had been responsible for some of the most highly publicized thefts of American
technology. “We still see semiconductor companies and aerospace firms attacked.”
• But the daily barrage of attacks has diminished, which Mr. Mandia attributed to “public pressure” from, among others, the Justice
Department’s decision to indict five members of the P.L.A. unit about a year after its activities were exposed.
• Today, Unit 61398 appears to be largely out of business, its hackers dispersed to other military, private and intelligence units. Many
China scholars and legal experts remain skeptical that the Chinese are deterred by American indictments, since the P.L.A. officers are
unlikely to see the inside of an American courtroom. But John P. Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security, said the
report validated his strategy.
• “The lesson is that when you figure out who has done this kind of theft, don’t fear making it public,” he said. “This is a slow process, but
we are beginning to make people realize that even in cyberspace, laws and norms are applicable.”
• Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi drew up their agreement narrowly. It covers intellectual property theft — Chinese cybercriminals have stolen
everything from designs for the F-35 fighter jet to the design of gas distribution networks — but not ordinary espionage against
government targets.
• So, for example, the administration has not publicly talked about penalizing China for the theft of personal data on roughly 22 million
Americans, whose security-clearance information was taken from the Office of Personnel Management. In fact, the administration has
never publicly blamed China for that theft, although the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., did talk about China’s role