Wray Speaks
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Chinese government-linked hackers have burrowed into U.S. critical infrastructure and are waiting "for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday.
An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted, Wray said in a speech at Vanderbilt University.
China is developing the "ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing," Wray said at the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats. "Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic."
Wray said it was difficult to determine the intent of this cyber pre-positioning which was aligned with China's broader intent to deter the U.S. from defending Taiwan.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future.
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They need a crisis?
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Shocked...I tell you...shocked. Who could have thought? Of course, just about any reasonable person - which exempts much of congress and the executive office staff. Who would think of using airplanes as weapons? Just because the Japanese employed thousands in just such an activity...
We live in a frightfully fragile world - one where a giant solar storm that perhaps hasn't been seen in a 150 years could knock out our satellites and much of our infrastructure - or hackers going after energy and other infrastructure sites or mass drone attacks against ships and installations - where a small drone in the right place could adversely impact the functionality of a multibillion dollar weapons system. No, no one would think of any of these things happening - which means we can focus on the most important issues of the day - Tik Tok ownership or some other manufactured issue.
When the Ukraine/Russia war broke out, I half expected Russia to engage in some cyber attacks on the US infrastructure. Or for that matter - Iran or North Korea. One doesn't have to spend billions to create weapons of mass destruction and a delivery system to wreak havoc on any country that depends on computers for operation of their infrastructure.
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When the Ukraine/Russia war broke out, I half expected Russia to engage in some cyber attacks on the US infrastructure.
You can be certain there were and are attempts. There’s a lot going on that the collective NATO cyber security specialists keep a move ahead of Moscow and its networks. We just don’t hear much about it for good reason.