(ConservativeJournal.org) – FBI Director Christopher Wray warned the audience during the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats on April 18 about the possibility of Chinese hackers getting ready to unleash attacks against critical U.S. infrastructure.
Wray said that the Chinese were planning to damage infrastructure to induce a panic and weaken America’s will. Wray added that China considers “every sector” of society “fair game” and were eager to dominate the globe. He said that the FBI was working diligently to keep Americans safe.
Wray linked cyber-crime to the Chinese Communist Party’s desire for more “wealth and power.” He suggested it was also possible that the Chinese were making moves in preparation for an attempt to take Taiwan, which would inevitably demand a U.S. response.
Wray added that China was aiming to have their key hacking linchpins in place by 2027 as they have mentioned that year as the potential for when they anticipate the conflict to turn hot.
Wray also mentioned China’s tendency to steal intellectual property, research, and technology from American companies across all industries. He called their attempts to target infrastructure “broad and unrelenting,” suggesting that the Chinese strategy was to overwhelm the U.S. response with a massive number of individual cyber-attacks.
Wray highlighted the fact that there were more individual Chinese hackers than FBI investigators pursuing them and that they’ve been snooping around digital access to infrastructure so they could flood the system with attacks at a point in time of their choosing.
Wray added that companies facing cyber intrusion should reach out to their local FBI field office. He added that Chinese hackers stole access to control and monitoring systems in under 15 minutes while noting that they ignored financial data.
Wray added that other organizations are working to defend us from Chinese or other sources of cyber-crime, including the military and other intelligence agencies. Wray had previously warned the House Select Committee on China about the potential for the communist country to disable the electrical grid, transportation, natural gas and oil pipelines, and water treatment plants with cyberattacks.
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