FBI director warns Chinese hackers setting up to attack, wreak havoc on American infrastructure

NASHVILLE, TN - At a speech at Vanderbilt University on Thursday, April 18th, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray told attendees that Chinese government-linked hackers have "burrowed" into U.S. critical infrastructure and is essentially "waiting for the right moment to deal a devastating blow" to the entire country.

According to a report from Reuters, an ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as "Volt Typhoon" has, according to Wray, successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water, and other critical sectors with a total of 23 pipeline operations currently targeted.

At the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, Wray said that the hackers plan is to "land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic." He said that China is developing the ability to "physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing." 

He said that it has been difficult to determine the intent of this cyber pre-positioning, which was aligned with China's broader intent to deter the U.S. from defending Taiwan. A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesperson said that Volt Typhoon is not related to China's government, but that it is part of a criminal ransomware group.

In a statement, China's Embassy in Washington, D.C. referenced the MFA spokesperson's comment, saying, "Some in the U.S. have been using origin-tracing of cyberattacks as a tool to hit and frame China, claiming the U.S. to be the victim while it's the other way around, politicizing cybersecurity issues."

According to Wray, the hackers a part of this Volt Typhoon operate a series of botnets, which are constellations of compromised personal computers and servers around the world and use them to conceal their malicious cyber activities. Private sector American technology and cybersecurity companies have previously attributed Volt Typhoon to China, including reports by security researchers with Microsoft and Google.

At the summit, Wray said, "The PRC (People's Republic of China) has made it clear that it considers every sector that makes our society run as fair game in its bid to dominate the world stage." He said that the cyber burrowing by the Chinese Communist Party stems from its "aspirations to wealth and power."

Wray suggested that China is interested in having countermeasures in place for a "crisis between China and Taiwan by 2027." He said, "The fact is, the PRC's targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting. it's using that mass, those numbers, to give itself the ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing."

He added, "When one victim company set up a honeypot, essentially a trap designed to look like a legitimate part of a computer network with decoy documents, it took the hackers all of 15 minutes to steal data related to the control and monitoring systems, while ignoring financial and business-related information, which suggests their goals were even more sinister than stealing a leg up economically." To combat China's cyber infiltration schemes, top law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies are collaborating to uncover and thwart those attacks.

He said, "We've seen the best outcomes in situations where a company made a habit of reaching out to their local FBI field office even before there was any indication of a problem because that put everyone on the same page and contributed to the company's readiness."

He encouraged private sector organizations to keep an eye on their "hardware and supply chains" to avoid potential compromise, such as the Solar Winds hack that used "innocuous-looking software updates" as a vector. He said in a statement, "Vetting your vendors, their security practices, and knowing who's building the hardware and software you're granting access to your network is crucial, so push for transparency into what vendors and suppliers are doing with your data and how they will maintain it."

During a House Select Committee on China hearing earlier in the year, Wray issued a similar warning to lawmakers. He has warned that Chinese-led hackers have their sights on the electrical grid, oil and natural gas pipelines, transportation systems, American water treatment plants, and more.