Security News > 2024 > February > Congress told how Chinese goons plan to incite 'societal chaos' in the US

Chinese attackers are preparing to "Wreak havoc" on American infrastructure and "Cause societal chaos" in the US, infosec, and law enforcement bosses told a US House committee on Wednesday.

The hearing coincided with the FBI's confirmation that it obtained search warrants and issued a remote kill command to wipe Volt Typhoon's botnet after the Chinese crew infected hundreds of end-of-life routers and attempted to break into American critical infrastructure targets.

Such incidents are no longer a "Theoretical threat," added US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly, noting that CISA has seen Volt Typhoon "Burrowing deep into our critical infrastructure to enabled active attacks in the event of a major crisis."

As Wray has repeatedly noted - and did again in front of the House panel - Chinese cyber spies outnumber the FBI's cyber agents 50 to one.

"Unfortunately, the technology underpinning our critical infrastructure is inherently insecure because of decades of software developers not being held liable for defective technology that has led to incentives where features and speed to market have been prioritized against security, leaving our nation vulnerable to cyber invasion," Easterly told the House subcommittee.

"Technology manufacturers must ensure that China and other cyber actors cannot exploit the weaknesses in our technology, to saunter through the open doors of our critical infrastructure to destroy it," she added.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/china_attack_warning/