As the head of the FBI pointed out Wednesday, Beijing was positioning itself to disrupt the daily lives of Americans if there was ever a war between the United States and China if it were to plant malware to damage civilian infrastructure.
U.S. officials said Wednesday they disrupted a state-backed Chinese effort to plant malware.
As FBI Director Chris Wray addressed House legislators just before the operation was announced, a botnet comprising hundreds of U.S.-based small office and home routers owned by individuals and companies was disrupted as part of the operation.
Chinese hackers hijacked these routers to hide their presence as they sow malware.
During the US House hearing on Wednesday, Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that China's hackers are targeting infrastructure to create havoc and harm American citizens and communities.
In a report released by Wray hours after the FBI, with the support of the US Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, identified and disabled hundreds of routers hacked by a group known as Volt Typhoon, which US intelligence agencies suspect may be financed by the Chinese government.
As a result of the group's work, Chinese critical infrastructure, such as communications, energy, transport, and water, was exploited by China using malware developed and distributed by the group.
There is a consensus among outside cybersecurity firms, such as Microsoft, that Chinese state-backed hackers have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, and these comments align with statements made by outside cybersecurity firms in May. In the event of future crises between the U.S. and Asia, these technological advancements could lay the technical groundwork for the disruption of critical communications.
In the month following, Mandiant reported that it was suspected state-backed Chinese hackers had hacked the networks of hundreds of public and private organizations across the globe using a security hole in a popular email security appliance.
Among the many senior U.S. officials who have been raising the alarm for years about not only Chinese hacking prowess but also Beijing's determination to steal American scientific and industrial research have been raising the alarm for years.
Multiple criminal indictments have laid out detailed evidence supporting China's claims that those accusations are unfounded.
During these last few years, officials in the United States have been concerned about the possibility of such hackers hiding in U.S. infrastructure.
To meet the urgency, law enforcement officials said, investigators worked with U.S. cyber operators who removed the malware from the routers without informing their owners directly - and added code to prevent the routers from being infected again.
In a statement given to reporters under the condition of anonymity by government ground rules, a Justice Department official said officials were determined to interrupt Volt Typhoon's operation as soon as possible since the hackers were using it as a stepping stone to hide in U.S. internet traffic.
The hackers burrow their way into critical infrastructure networks, ready to take advantage of that access whenever they please, ready to exploit it at any time of the day or night.
According to Chinese government officials, the US government's allegations are unfounded and unfounded.
A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, made a statement last year, according to which the Chinese government believes that China is the biggest victim of cyberattacks in the world due to almost daily and huge amounts of intrusions into its systems.
The commander of US Cyber Command, Gen. Paul Nakasone, who is leaving the post, has maintained that responsible cyber actors do not attack civilian infrastructure as part of their activities.
When Leon Panetta testified on Tuesday before the same committee, he said that he believed that Chinese agents had implanted malware within our computer networks and that the Chinese government would spread disinformation using artificial intelligence as a method of spreading disinformation.
Chinese officials have used their influence to lash out at the committee, accusing its members of ideological bias and the mindset of a zero-sum game typical of the Cold War.
This Cyber News was published on www.cysecurity.news. Publication date: Sun, 04 Feb 2024 14:13:04 +0000