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Chinese hackers have infiltrated critical U.S. infrastructure systems, report says – wpde.com Feedzy

 

WASHINGTON (TND) — China has strengthened its ability to disrupt U.S. infrastructure systems over the past year, a new report says.

Hackers associated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) infiltrated computer systems of approximately two-dozen critical units, according to the Washington Post. The entities include a Hawaiian water utility, a West Coast port and oil and gas pipelines. The cyber soldiers also victimized foreign electrical systems.

China’s strategies indicate it will try to bar the U.S. from influencing Asian conflicts, like a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, or sow chaos among American communities during emergency periods, according to Brandon Wales, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

It is very clear that Chinese attempts to compromise critical infrastructure are in part to pre-position themselves to be able to disrupt or destroy that critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict,” Wales said, according to the Washington Post.

The disruptions seek to “either prevent the United States from being able to project power into Asia or to cause societal chaos inside the United States — to affect our decision-making around a crisis,” according to Wales.

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The hackers’ attention on Hawaii suggests China wants to make it difficult for the U.S. to ship troops and equipment to Taiwan should a conflict arise, according to Joe McReynolds, a China security studies fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.

This is stuff they pretty clearly see as relevant to a Taiwan scenario,” McReynolds claimed, according to the Washington Post, “Though they don’t explicitly say this is how we’re going to take over Taiwan.”

Chinese military officials have discussed enabling their infrastructure disruptions to coincide with airstrikes. They have talked about timing missile launches with the interruption of command and satellite networks, along with military logistics systems, according to the Washington Post.

If Beijing feared that a major conflict with the United States were imminent, it almost certainly would consider undertaking aggressive cyber operations against U.S. homeland critical infrastructure and military assets worldwide,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.

In August, the cyber-soldiers tried to infiltrate the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s electrical grid, according to security company Recorded Future. In 2012, PLA hackers collected data regarding industrial control systems from Telvent, whose software operates North American gas pipelines, according to the Washington Post.

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