By giving up source code to the Chinese government, companies like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Microsoft give up their highly guarded blueprints, revealing weaknesses that could give hackers a road map for breaking in.
That presents a major threat. Chinese government hacker spies already steal valuable intellectual property to give their state-run corporations a head start. Why hack an American firm to steal its source code if you can just force the company to give it up as a ticket to China?
The firm Websense makes software to spot data theft at banks. But Charles Renert, who oversees the firm’s source code, said he would be reluctant to give that up as a Chinese expansion quid pro quo.
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Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2015. All rights reserved.
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