China Poses ‘Unprecedented’ Espionage, Cyber Security Threats to US, FBI Director Claims
04:18 GMT 25.04.2022 (Updated: 09:03 GMT 10.02.2023)
© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
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FireEye's Mandiant said in a March report that hacking group APT41 likely conspired with China in the hacking of six US state governments. An analyst with the private security firm said the China-linked hackers’ persistence to gain entrance to “important” information was “unnerving,” as the actors were found “everywhere.”
The proliferation of cybersecurity attacks linked to China was brought up once again on Sunday as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray asserted that intelligence officials are faced with cybersecurity and espionage threats from China that are “unprecedented in history,” amounting to a new federal probe every 12 hours.
“The biggest threat we face as a country from a counterintelligence perspective is from the People’s Republic of China, and especially the Chinese Communist Party,” Wray stated, accusing China of targeting American innovation, trade secrets, and intellectual property “on a scale that’s unprecedented in history.”
“We are now moving at a pace where we’re opening a new China counterintelligence investigation about every 12 hours,” FBI Director Christopher Wray tells 60 Minutes. “It’s a measure of how significant the threat is.” https://t.co/hyJmxzXgqp pic.twitter.com/26xOGIkAAc
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 24, 2022
The FBI chief’s comments came as part of a “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday, April 24. The interview took place at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 21.
14 March 2022, 11:35 GMT
“They have stolen more of Americans’ personal and corporate data than every nation combined,” the FBI Director claimed, noting that the scope of the China-linked hacking program targets every sector of the US economy, including agriculture, tech, healthcare, and aviation.
As of the April 21 interview, more than 2,000 China counterintelligence probes were active among the 56 FBI field offices.
“I can assure that it’s not because our agents don’t have enough else to do,” Wray quipped. “It’s a measure of how significant the threat is.”
