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The United States has faced numerous cyberattacks from foreign bodies recently, and the country’s latest threat comes from China. Hackers with ties to the People’s Liberation Army have successfully broken into roughly two dozen U.S. systems over the past year, the Washington Post reported. The Post spoke to unnamed U.S. and industry security officials to get that figure, which lines up with public data from official reports. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the government body that handles cyberinfrastructure, and has cited China as an associate of the culprits of numerous cyberattacks in the U.S.
The U.S. claims that China is the sponsoring nation behind the cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, particularly targeting transportation. Other utilities, like water and power stations, are top targets as well. China could be using these cyberattacks as “practice” for a war. This comes as tensions between the U.S. and China are coming to a head, with the former looking to gain manufacturing independence. If there was ever a full-scale conflict between the two powerful countries, cyberattacks could slow response or cause homeland chaos.
“It is very clear that Chinese attempts to compromise critical infrastructure are in part to pre-position themselves to be able to disrupt or destroy that critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict, to either prevent the United States from being able to project power into Asia or to cause societal chaos inside the United States — to affect our decision-making around a crisis,” Brandon Wales, the executive director of CISA, told the Post. “That is a significant change from Chinese cyber activity from seven to 10 years ago that was focused primarily on political and economic espionage.”
The groups behind U.S. cyberattacks may be associated with China
China isn’t the only country launching cyberattacks on the U.S. Iran has also tried to breach U.S. infrastructure, according to government officials. And the idea that potential cyberattacks could be used as part of a larger conflict is more than just suspicion. In Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Russia is attacking the country with ground assaults, air strikes, and cyberattacks.
The U.S. government has identified a group known as Volt Typhoon as a source of the cyberattacks. Additionally, it describes the group as a “People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actor.” The group uses an attack method known as “living off the land.” Through this process, attacks from the Volt Typhoon can blend in with normal usage and go undetected.
Cyberattacks could intensify as China and the U.S. continue moving toward hostilities. We’ve already seen plenty of cyberattacks against companies in the private sector, too.
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