  Increased connectivity has made us all more vulnerable. Cyberspace, besides
all its benefits, spawned more devices to hack and more opportunities to commit
cybercrime. Criminals have found it lucrative to target both individuals and
businesses, by holding or stealing their assets via different types of cyber
attacks. The cyber-enabled theft of Intellectual Property (IP), as one of the
most important and critical intangible assets of nations, organizations and
individuals, by foreign countries has been a devastating challenge of the
United States (U.S.) in the past decades. In this study, we conduct a
socio-technical root cause analysis to investigate one of the recent cases of
IP theft by employing a holistic approach. It concludes with a list of root
causes and some corrective actions to stop the impact and prevent the
recurrence of the problem in the future. Building upon the findings of this
study, the U.S. requires a detailed revision of IP strategies bringing the
whole socio-technical regulatory system into focus and strengthen IP rights
protection considering China's indigenous innovation policies. It is critical
that businesses and other organizations take steps to reduce their exposure to
cyber attacks. It is particularly important to train employees on how to spot
potential threats, and to institute policies that encourage workers to report
potential security failures so that action can be taken quickly. Finally, we
discuss how cyber ranges can provide an efficient and safe platform for dealing
with such challenges. The results of this study can be expanded to other
countries in order to protect their IP rights and deter or prevent and respond
to future incidents.
