April 18, 2024
Chinese state-sponsored hackers have conducted widespread cyberattacks on critical American infrastructure in recent years, intending to give the country the ability to cause “a devastating blow” against the US, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“The fact is, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting,” he told a security conference in Nashville on Thursday, describing China’s hacking programme as growing in strength.
“It’s using that mass, those numbers, to give itself the ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing,” he added.
Last year, security analysts at Microsoft identified mysterious code linked to communications systems in Guam, the US territory in the Pacific with a massive strategic air base.
Officials believe the code was the work of Volt Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group.
Volt Typhoon sought to target vulnerabilities in electric grids, shipping ports, and water infrastructure, among other systems, according to intelligence experts.
The FBI said in January it had removed hacks from hundreds of devices.
Security officials have spent the intervening months warning about Volt Typhoon and hunting out the remnants of its malicious code.
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Bugs Marlowe