The FBI is more concerned than ever with Chinese malware
The FBI has renewed its “laser focus” on rooting out Chinese state actors’ attempts to hack and destabilize U.S. infrastructure.
The Financial times (paywall) reported on comments from FBI Director Christopher Wray, who this week also alleged that the law enforcement agency had thwarted recent attempts by the Chinese state to disrupt U.S. utility infrastructure, under the guise of a hacking network known only as Volt Typhoon.
Wray spoke specifically about how the spread of malware makes operations like Volt Typhoon all the more common. According to him, computer hacking is the Chinese government’s latest tool to “plant offensive weapons in our critical infrastructure, ready to attack when (it) decides the time is right.”
The specter of foreign espionage
Wray also warned that Volt Typhoon and other similar organizations aimed to disrupt not only American industry, but other targets worldwide.
While claiming that the Chinese government’s cyber espionage activities had reached a boiling point, Wray also said he believed the US push to raise awareness of the threat was working, with citizens “increasingly attuned to the threat compared to just a few years ago .”
Governments around the world, he claimed, were also increasingly aware of the problem. In October 2023, the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, which consists of the US and Canada and several European and Oceanic governments such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand, held its first meeting on the subject.
Wray said he believes European countries are putting more resources into tackling the problem, and that “they” were “all moving in the same direction.”
The specter of AI
Wray claimed that developments in artificial intelligence would allow it to act as a “force multiplier” that would “accelerate” the Chinese government’s efforts over time.
Until then, he believes it is crucial to remain focused on Chinese cyber espionage amid other international developments such as the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestinian wars, because even if “it doesn’t have the kind of immediacy that a full military conflict’, it is still ‘as big a crisis’.