FBI director warns China’s computer attacks are now at a ‘scale greater than we’d seen before’ as vulnerable critical infrastructure remains at high-risk to be targeted

China’s cyber attacks have grown to a “greater scale than we have ever seen before,” the FBI director has advised, amid fears that US infrastructure is under threat.

Christopher Wray issued the dire warning as intelligence chiefs and politicians met at the annual security conference in Munich on Sunday, the newspaper said Wall Street Journal.

The wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East were the focus of the conference, but Wray urged leaders not to lose sight of a more subtle threat.

He said Beijing’s plan to secretly install technology in U.S. critical infrastructure has become a significant threat to national security.

Wray cited Volt Typhoon, the nickname given to the Chinese hacking network that infiltrated the US last year, but said this is just the “tip of the iceberg.”

Analysts believe the Chinese military has changed its strategy from intelligence gathering to infiltration in an effort to sow chaos should war break out

“It is one of many efforts by the Chinese,” he told the conference. Wray added that China is increasingly inserting itself “offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure ready to strike when Beijing decides the time is right.”

Under ‘Volt Typhoon’, Beijing’s military has dug into more than 20 major suppliers in the past year alone, including a water company in Hawaii, a major port on the west coast and at least one oil and gas pipeline, analysts revealed weeks ago.

They have bypassed complex cybersecurity systems by intercepting passwords and logins not monitored by junior employees, leaving China “sitting on a stockpile of strategic” vulnerabilities.

“It is very clear that Chinese efforts to compromise critical infrastructure are partly to prepare itself to disrupt or destroy that critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict,” said Brandon Wales of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure. Security agency.

By hiding among authorized users, the hackers can remain virtually invisible to the authorities.

“The two most difficult challenges with these techniques are determining that a compromise has occurred and, once discovered, having confidence that the actor has been taken out,” said Morgan Adamski of the National Security Agency.

But in August, the hackers were spotted trying to penetrate systems operated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that supply power to the state.

But Hawaii is seen as the biggest target given the crucial role it would play for the US if a conflict broke out over Taiwan.

According to Reynolds, Chinese military planners plan for “network warfare” to play a crucial role in amphibious invasions, coordinating air and missile strikes alongside cyber attacks on command networks, critical infrastructure, satellite networks and military logistics.

“These are things that they clearly consider relevant to a Taiwan scenario,” he said, “although they don’t explicitly say this is how we’re going to take over Taiwan.”

In May, Microsoft exposed Chinese attempts to infiltrate dozens of industries in Guam, the U.S. territory closest to Taiwan.

Communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education organizations were targeted by Volt Typhoon.

That month, the ‘Five Eyes’ security alliance between the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand offered new advice to companies on how to keep their systems secure.

But new requirements for states to report on cyber threats to their public water systems have been dropped by the Environmental Protection Agency in light of court challenges to federal “overreach.”

Beijing has a long history of cyber warfare with the West and managed to steal critical monitoring data from Canadian gas pipeline operator Telvent after breaching its firewall in 2012.

President Joe Biden with Chinese President Xi Jinping last year

The Chinese focus on Guam is of particular importance as the US territory is a key military base in the Pacific and would be a key stage for any US response in the event of a conflict in Taiwan or the South China Sea.

The group’s apparent focus on Guam is of particular interest, as the U.S. territory is a major military base in the Pacific

Hackers from the infamous Unit 61398 were held responsible and in 2014, five members of the unit were indicted for hacking into US companies.

But officials believe the strategy has changed from gathering intelligence to wreaking havoc.

And no company is too small or seemingly insignificant to escape Chinese attention.

Eric Goldstein of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said WashingtonPost that many targets “are not necessarily those who would have an immediately relevant connection to a critical function on which many Americans depend.”

“Opportunistic targeting based on where they can get access” is a way to gain access to an entire sector.

The National Security Agency has warned that every employee is at risk of letting Chinese spies into their company, and has urged companies to push for mass password resets.

They want to better monitor accounts with high network privileges and warned that authentication that relies on a text message to a user’s phone could be intercepted by foreign governments.

And while the Chinese are eager to project their growing military strength, the full extent of their cyber capabilities remains a closely guarded secret.