U.S. critical infrastructure entities have been warned by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly regarding the possibility of disruptive Chinese cyberattacks in the event of U.S. involvement in a potential invasion of Taiwan, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
“In some of the products that we put out earlier this year, a cybersecurity advisory talked about Chinese state-sponsored actors living off the land. So not malware, but actually using the native processes of a computer to hide in those systems. And it wasn’t for espionage or data theft, which has been going on for decades. It was more likely for disruption and destruction,” said Easterly during the DEF CON security conference.
Meanwhile, Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske noted that increasingly concerning intelligence has prompted the TSA to more urgently coordinate with other agencies and release emergency cybersecurity directives.
“You don’t issue emergency amendments to a security plan unless you feel like you are in an emergency situation,” Pekoske added.
