FBI Warns Chinese Malware Could Threaten Critical US Infrastructure (ft.com) 78
The FBI is "laser focused" on Chinese efforts to insert malicious software code into computer networks in ways that could disrupt critical US infrastructure, according to the agency's director Christopher Wray. From a report: Wray said he was acutely concerned about "pre-positioning" of malware. He said the US recently disrupted a Chinese hacking network known as Volt Typhoon that targeted American infrastructure including the electricity grid and water supply, and other targets around the world. "We're laser focused on this as a real threat and we're working with a lot of partners to try to identify it, anticipate it and disrupt it," Wray said on Sunday after attending the Munich Security Conference.
"I'm sober and clear minded about what we're up against...We're always going to have to be kind of on the balls of our feet." Wray said Volt Typhoon was just the tip of the iceberg and was one of many such efforts by the Chinese government. The US has been tracking Chinese pre-positioning operations for well over a decade, but Wray told the security conference that they had reached "fever pitch." He said China was increasingly inserting "offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right."
His comments are the latest FBI effort to raise awareness about Chinese espionage that ranges from traditional spying and intellectual property theft to hacking designed to prepare for possible future conflict. Last October, Wray and his counterparts from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network that includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand held their first public meeting in an effort to focus the spotlight on Chinese espionage. Wray said the US campaign was having an impact and that people were increasingly attuned to the threat, particularly compared with several years ago when he sometimes met scepticism.
"I'm sober and clear minded about what we're up against...We're always going to have to be kind of on the balls of our feet." Wray said Volt Typhoon was just the tip of the iceberg and was one of many such efforts by the Chinese government. The US has been tracking Chinese pre-positioning operations for well over a decade, but Wray told the security conference that they had reached "fever pitch." He said China was increasingly inserting "offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right."
His comments are the latest FBI effort to raise awareness about Chinese espionage that ranges from traditional spying and intellectual property theft to hacking designed to prepare for possible future conflict. Last October, Wray and his counterparts from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network that includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand held their first public meeting in an effort to focus the spotlight on Chinese espionage. Wray said the US campaign was having an impact and that people were increasingly attuned to the threat, particularly compared with several years ago when he sometimes met scepticism.
Weird how... (Score:5, Insightful)
Weird how this isn't considered an act of war.
Re:Weird how... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Weird how.. (Score:1)
This is why you’re such an unpopular troll. Your humor is for you and you alone.
Who is supposed to be the audience for “dear retard”?
Nobody else is in on the joke and it’s not even a joke. More like a joke-like-substamce.
Your humor doesn’t even need to appeal to the majority of Slashdot but it needs to be fresh and funny to at least a few people.
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Hey there flopsy!
Come join us on trolltalk: https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
Re:Weird how... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you know of a single instance in history where electronic intrusion was cited as casus belli, feel free to mention it. Can't prove a negative, but I'm pretty confident there are no examples. Which means, by default, it's treated as espionage.
Your point is correct. The CIA/FBI/HUAC and other organizations in the USA spent the entire second half of the 20th century telling us that the USSR had inserted spies into the United States government, subversive propagandists into cinema/journalism, and violent revolutionaries into social movements. At no point did we respond to this allegedly massive, pervasive, sweeping literary, visual, analog, in-person, and electronic intrusion, as justification to unleash the ICBMs and put boots on the ground in Latvia.
We executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They stole technical knowledge of electronic equipment and specific information about uranium enrichment from the Manhattan Project. These weren't random lone-wolf revolutionaries. They were literally paid agents of the government of the USSR. America didn't roll tanks and take off every zig for great justice. We killed the convicted espionage criminals and let the missiles continue sleeping in their mountain lairs.
The same was true throughout history. Spying is not some new invention of the electronic age. Royal courts and government ministers have been turned as spies to intercept secrets and disrupt the functions of the kingdom. Torture and grisly execution awaited them if caught, and they certainly would be used for stoking tribal/royalist/nationalist fervor among the population, but groups weren't going to war every time they caught spies and saboteurs. We have writings on the subject going back basically for as long as written history of civilization has existed, We don't need thousands of years of computers to set a precedent for this practice.
And even if, for some reason, the entire historical record of human civilization weren't enough for someone, we have a case study within our lifetime. The governments of USA and Israel conducted a targeted attack on computerized infrastructure in Iran. Sabers were rattled all around, imams railed, western diplomats smirked while issuing non-denial denials, American political candidates sang Beach Boys songs on campaign stops. And of course all the ops and counter-ops and double-reverse counter ops continue. But no fighter jets were deployed.
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Covert and diplomatic ambiguity are necessities of peace.
you learn something new every day
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its absolutely an act of war. When it was attacks on companies (even strategically important ones) churning out widgets; I think one could argue there was cause for some restraint:
1) We get a chance to observe their methods and capabilities
2) other diplomatic missions could continue
3) the costs vs the economic opportunity of trade make it acceptable.
However once they started attacking the State itself and infrastructural things like power and water systems that could get people killed, that should have bee
Re:Weird how... (Score:4, Interesting)
US policy toward electronic warfare has consistently kept it in the grey area, and we have sometimes found it convenient to use that to our advantage (e.g., Stuxnet).
And bringing up the traitor Donald Trump in a discussion about US national security makes me think you're probably saying this crap from somewhere with a lot of Z's, K's, and backwards R's on the signs.
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Re: Weird how... (Score:2)
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Poland has a lot of Z's and K's on their signs.
But they don't have the backwards R. Spying problem is with the backwards R.
Re: Weird how... (Score:2)
However, it's not (necessarily) an act of war to clandestinely create the capability to wage such attacks.
On whose soil?
The only reason that uncovering fifth columnists inside a country doesn't (usually) trigger a war is that it's damned difficult to prove in a free society. You can quote Marx or out of Mao's little red book all you want over here. That's your right. And unless we can find the money trail, there isn't much we can do. If you are motivated by ideology adopted from a commie college professor, that's not even illegal.
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What the FBI is talking about are capabilities with the potential to be weaponized, not malware specific to actual attacks. It's the "dual use" tactic that has always been a feature of armed peace / cold war. They can, and almost certainly would, use the malware just to spy, but it could go darker than that if a
Re: Weird how... (Score:2)
The United States will respond in the time and place and manner of our own choosing. And not be drawn into a war it does not want. This is pretty much warfare and geopolitics 101.
If you want to produce an exciting action film, then of course pick the more dramatic but improbable route.
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The United States will respond in the time and place and manner of our own choosing. And not be drawn into a war it does not want. This is pretty much warfare and geopolitics 101.
If you want to produce an exciting action film, then of course pick the more dramatic but improbable route.
There are wars the USA doesn't want?? I'm shocked. This is hardly what the experience of the last 70 years tells us. The USA has hardly ever not been at war.
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Yes, we don't want nuclear war. We also don't like wars to occur in the continental United States, which explains some of the aggressive "regime change" invasion policies. Both of these aspects explains our reaction during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The US is obviously not anti-war. But they do choose the wars they participate in, usually by being the one that initiates them.
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Yes, we don't want nuclear war. We also don't like wars to occur in the continental United States, which explains some of the aggressive "regime change" invasion policies. Both of these aspects explains our reaction during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The US is obviously not anti-war. But they do choose the wars they participate in, usually by being the one that initiates them.
Seemingly, especially when it involves bombing brown people.
Despite not wanting a war on their own continent there seems to be a view that Mexico is the USA's back yard and that there should be a military intervention there...
Theres also China which, despite being many of the USA's allies main trading partner, the USA is desperately trying to provoke a war with.
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Despite not wanting a war on their own continent there seems to be a view that Mexico is the USA's back yard and that there should be a military intervention there...
Mexico is a tiny country and Central Mexico is difficult to attack. As most of it on mountains and not near the ocean, and self-sufficient for food. And there is almost no naval advantage to occupying Mexico's coast, so why do it?
The real end game is for the US to create a second class that has no basic human rights and use them as labor. So mission accomplished there
Theres also China which, despite being many of the USA's allies main trading partner, the USA is desperately trying to provoke a war with.
Provoking a war is not the same as a nuclear war. Pushing China or Russia or India to an existential crisis would be how we could trigger a nu
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If hacking is an act of war, the consider that the US and UK hacked EU countries. The US has been accused of hacking Chinese companies too, and I'm sure the UK helped out.
Then there was the infamous US hack on Iranian centrifuges, which are part of their nuclear power/weapons programme. Was that an act of war? Nuclear power is infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Israel is actually bombing other countries right now. Lebanon, and they previously bombed Iranian infrastructure, unprovoked.
The reality is, very little is c
Weapons of Mass Distraction (Score:3)
Weird how this isn't considered an act of war.
All depends on how you want to treat Weapons of Mass Distraction.
The FBI is under major scrutiny for highly questionable behavior over the last few years. What they are “laser focused” on, is making sure there are plenty of nameless, faceless “threats” to suddenly talk about and address with “urgency”, because otherwise taxpayers might become a bit too focused on internal corruption that is the actual threat.
Weird how more can’t see that. Same reason we have two p
Re:Weird how... (Score:5, Funny)
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US probably does it also.
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Weird how this isn't considered an act of war.
And US malware threatens critical Chinese infrastructure. Just grow up.
Re: Weird how... (Score:2)
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The same way space starts at 50 miles up, according to the US Air Force. The US did it first and does it best, they make up some convenient rules, and you can like it or be North Korea.
Fear mongering and conditioning (Score:2)
So they've been tracking 'prepositioning' and just leaving the 'offensive weapons' in place for Beijing to... yeah fucking right.
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Sigh (Score:2)
I miss the days when Russia was trying to frame China [wikipedia.org] with a nuclear attack on the USA.
I'm not too worried about Russo-Chinese plots to take over the world. Invariably, socialism collapses as soon as total domination appears to be within reach and their internal factions begin in-fighting.
What Changed (Score:3, Insightful)
The change in behavior isn’t due to China.
The change in behavior is more due to Wray being under the scrutiny spotlight for questionable behavior by the FBI, and “China” is a fitting distraction.
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"The US has been tracking Chinese pre-positioning operations for well over a decade, but Wray told the security conference that they had reached "fever pitch." He said China was increasingly inserting "offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right." "
So they've been tracking 'prepositioning' and just leaving the 'offensive weapons' in place for Beijing to... yeah fucking right.
And so has the US in China. Big deal, you're both as bad as each other.
What if (Score:2)
The one of the most common infrastructure elements was suddenly shifted subscription status and the licenses expired?
No code needed... Just money to to buy the company that sells the infrastructure element.
In the mean time we're all looking for hackers to attack the code
It'd cost less than a war and be FAR more devastating.
Money people would NEVER do anything like this
Didn't Sun Tzu say be where your enemy isn't?
I've got news for you (Score:2)
[Prosthelytizer] Repent. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
[Ms. Scarlett] You ain't just whistlin' Dixie.
[Prosthelytizer] Armageddon is almost upon us!
[Professor Plum] I've got news for you: it's already here!
Just take it off the net. (Score:3)
Re: Just take it off the net. (Score:2)
Remote Work Paradox (Score:3)
No idea why key infastructure is on a world faceing network and not localy controlled analoug switching.
Greeds Remote Work Paradox.
All remote jobs are unjustified, except those jobs where Greed fired all the humans and replaced them with a remote terminal and some online sensors. Those are perfectly acceptable, because cheaper is always better.
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All remote jobs are unjustified
no, its just everyone who cant be bothered to come into work is lazy
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no, its just everyone who cant be bothered to come into work is lazy
Everyone who abuses mass generalizations is a moron.
There. Now prove which statement is actually less accurate.
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No idea why key infastructure is on a world faceing network and not localy controlled analoug switching.
Laziness, convenience, cost, simplicity.
People do NOT like to think, even when it will benefit them. Sleepwalking.
Lemme get this straight (Score:4, Insightful)
You buy your hardware from your political enemy and you're wondering whether it is bugged?
I wonder if the FBI can at least find its own ass with both hands.
Re: Lemme get this straight (Score:2)
You buy your hardware from your political enemy
Now, now. California isn't all that bad. And it will all be moved to Florida soon anyway.
I Just Hope... (Score:2)
that our side is doing the same.
Taiwan the ultimate fan & China aiming thr shi (Score:2)
If China invades Taiwan, lots of shit in all 3 countries will blink out, probably Europe also.
Maybe they should pay attention? (Score:2)
This is a threat from China!
*Invite a bunch of Chinese investment and don't safeguard the public*
We don't understand why we have all these problems! OOPS! OUR BRAINS FELL OUT!
Okay, maybe but... (Score:1)
Let's not forget that PG&E plead guilty to manslaughter and the Texas grid can't handle cold temperatures. Unless the Chinese are the ones training squirrels, let's not lose focus on the real problem.
Security > anti-China FUD (Score:2)
The Chinese may already have acted (Score:2)
Certain snide, nasty-minded people are asking whether back in 2021 the Chinese ran a pilot program in Texas that paid off handsomely.
As I recall (Score:2)
As I recall, the USA was caught doing this too, with US-made equipment.
So, the USA starts a pissing contest (sometimes getting friends to join its side), the other country decides to play meaner and dirtier. This has been happening for decades and across multiple countries. Maybe, there's a lesson there.
critical US infrastructure, keep it offline (Score:2)