A senior US cybersecurity official said Monday that Chinese hackers are very certain to attack American essential infrastructure, such as pipelines and trains, in the event of a conflict with the US.
Think about water systems, transportation, gas lines, hospitals, traffic signals, the Internet, security systems, etc.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said during a speech at the Aspen Institute in Washington that Beijing is investing heavily in the potential to disrupt US infrastructure.
“This, I think, is the real threat that we need to be prepared for, and to focus on, and to build resilience against,” she told the audience.
Meanwhile, our president is focused on other important matters, like Pride Month.
She warned that Americans should be prepared for the possibility that Beijing’s hackers will breach their defenses and do physical harm.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“Given the formidable nature of the threat from Chinese state actors, given the size of their capability, given how much resources and effort they’re putting into it, it’s going to be very, very difficult for us to prevent disruptions from happening,” she added.
Easterly’s remarks were in response to a question regarding Volt Typhoon, an alleged Chinese hacking group accused by the US government and cybersecurity firms of preparing to launch catastrophic cyberattacks in the event of a conflict between our two countries.
Her remarks extended on a warning issued earlier this year by the US intelligence community, which stated in its annual threat assessment that Beijing “certainly would consider undertaking aggressive cyber operations against US homeland critical infrastructure” and military targets if Chinese decisionmakers believed a major conflict with the US was imminent.
