FBI director warns Chinese hackers waiting for ‘just the right moment’ to strike

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that hackers linked to the Chinese government have infiltrated U.S. infrastructure and are waiting for “just the right moment to deal a devastating blow.” Wray emphasized the immediate threats China poses to U.S. national and economic security during his speech at the Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats on Thursday, April 18.

China is developing the “ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing,” Wray said. “Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic.”

Wray detailed the Chinese Communist Party’s drive for power, which motivates their strategies including the theft of intellectual property and technologies crucial to future economies.

The director of the FBI said, “I’m talking about everything from indiscriminate hacking to economic espionage, to transnational repression, to fentanyl and the precursor chemicals that are coming out of China and ending up in our communities. What we’re facing today is the CCP throwing its whole government into undermining the security of the rule of law world.”

Why Volt Typhoon chose routers to target critical US infrastructure https://t.co/5STUrldHDD

— Federal Times (@FederalTimes) April 8, 2024

“China-sponsored hackers pre-positioned for potential cyberattacks against U.S. oil and natural gas companies way back in 2011,” Wray told the audience at Vanderbilt University.

Nearly a year ago, Microsoft reported that the cyber group Volt Typhoon had been secretly accessing critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S. since mid-2021. Security researchers from Microsoft and Google have linked the Volt Typhoon group to China. The group targets sectors such as communications, utilities, transportation, and government to spy on and infiltrate those networks.

Earlier this week, a spokesperson from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Volt Typhoon is not affiliated with China’s government but is a criminal ransomware group.