The U.S. and China need to work on a ‘cyber code of conduct’ to alleviate the fears surrounding cyber security.
The two countries are locked in a war of words over hacking attacks that has seen the U.S. even issue charges against Chinese officials. China meanwhile accuses the U.S. of false flagging and hypocrisy.
The countries are in talks over a potential code of cyber conduct, as well as the recent hack on U.S. worker information.
Secretary of State John Kerry, said: "There was an honest discussion about – without accusations, without any finger-pointing – about the problem of cyber theft and whether or not it [the hack] was sanctioned by government or whether it was hackers and individuals that the government has the ability to prosecute."
Kerry went on to say that the two superpowers are trying to bridge differences and that China, "has a very clear interest in making certain that everybody is behaving by a certain set of standards."
Kerry also addressed the recent reports that the U.S. had been spying on the communications of the French president Francois Hollande, saying: "I know that President Obama talked to President Hollande and made it clear we are not targeting President Hollande.
"We will not target friends like President Hollande and we don’t conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is some very specific and validated national security purpose, which I don’t know of in this instance."
