China Cyber Threat
“The scale of the China threat is massive. Cyber alone, they outnumber the FBI 50 to 1. So, scaling backwards means that many more cyber attacks at a time when they’re trying to target our critical infrastructure, among other things.” That’s FBI Director Christopher Wray’s warning. He was testifying before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. The testimony came at a hearing to review the President’s fiscal Year 2025 funding request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Wray further highlighted the severe magnitude of the cybersecurity threat posed by China.
FBI Chief’s Testimony
“Well, the Chinese cyber effort is gigantic. If you took all of the FBI’s cyber resources and said, forget Russia, forget Iran, forget ransomware, just do nothing but China, the Chinese government’s hacking program would dwarf ours 50 to 1. So, the idea that Congress would set us back instead of launching forward on that, boggles my mind. And so, I would implore and I know this subcommittee has been a great ally on this stuff. But, I would implore Congress more broadly to make sure that we don’t do that. Because I can guarantee you the Chinese government ain’t cutting its budget.”
“We know that China has specifically identified agriculture as one of the areas that it wants to target. It’s quite explicit about that. So that’s a concern. You also brought up,” he said, “the critical infrastructure dimensions of this. And we have seen the Chinese government attempting to target multiple sectors, civilian sectors, to pre-position, to potentially cause havoc at a time and place of their choosing.”
Constraining China’s Cyber Threat
This year the U.S Justice Department indicted seven Chinese nationals over the China cyber threat. The Treasury Department also sanctioned two of those seven and a company linked to China’s Ministry of State Security. All this for allegedly targeting critical infrastructure sectors, including an energy company and a defence firm. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has also warned of potential cyberattacks on water systems and health-care institutions around the U.S.
(With Reuters Inputs)
