Hacks Are Prompting Calls For A Cyber Agreement, But Reaching One Would Be Tough

The recent ransomware attacks on the U.S. gas and meat industries have sparked renewed conversations about the possibility of an international cyber agreement that would set the ground rules for what is and isn't permissible, and spell out sanctions for violators.

In the latest sign of the U.S.-Russia cyber tensions, the National Security Agency and other government security branches issued a joint advisory Thursday on how Russia's military intelligence has been trying to break into government and private computer networks for the past two years.

The statement did not cite specific hacks, though it provided pages of technical details, noting, for example, that the attackers often sought to go through Microsoft's cloud services to reach an intended target.

The timing of the