Symbolic of Sino-American relations, the flag of the United States of America and the flag of the Republic of China fly together on flag poles next to each other on a sunny, windy day.
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – According to U.S. and security industry experts, hackers connected to China’s military have gained access to dozens of vital U.S. networks within the past year in an attempt to see how well they could cause havoc around the country.
The Washington Post reports that the hacks seem to indicate that the People’s Liberation Army of China and the United States are testing their capabilities in case of a war breaking out in Taiwan, as they seemed to be made with an intention toward some future action rather than disrupting systems at the moment.
“It is very clear that Chinese attempts to compromise critical infrastructure are in part to pre-position themselves to be able to disrupt or destroy that critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict, to either prevent the United States from being able to project power into Asia or to cause societal chaos inside the United States—to affect our decision-making around a crisis,” CISA executive director Brandon Wales told the Post. “That is a significant change from Chinese cyber activity from seven to 10 years ago that was focused primarily on political and economic espionage.”
“You’re trying to build tunnels into your enemies’ infrastructure that you can later use to attack. Until then, you lie in wait, carry out reconnaissance, and figure out if you can move into industrial control systems or more critical companies or targets upstream,” Wales continued.
A water utility in Hawaii and at least one oil and gas pipeline were among the targets of the cyberattacks. Additionally, there were hacker attempts to breach Texas’ autonomous power system.
These incidents follow reports by the New York Post and Wall Street Journal in September that Chinese nationals have infiltrated military bases and other sensitive US locations more than 100 times in recent years. Among the incidents are reports of people entering a US missile range in New Mexico and scuba divers swimming close to the Kennedy Space Center and rocket launch site. Drones were also used in other situations to capture in-depth aerial images of key military locations, and the Pentagon confirmed reports of individuals “speeding through security checkpoints.”
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