the FBI, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons / Casa Rosada (Argentina Presidency of the Nation), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a stark warning on Thursday, claiming that Chinese hackers are preparing for a large-scale attack on U.S. cyberinfrastructure.

Chinese government-linked hackers have reportedly infiltrated U.S. critical infrastructure, waiting “for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said during his speech at the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats at Vanderbilt University, as reported by Reuters.

“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 on the world stage, and that its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic and break America’s will to resist,” Wray added, per an FBI press release.

An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign, known as Volt Typhoon, has successfully penetrated several American companies across telecommunications, energy, water, and other crucial sectors, including 23 pipeline operators, according to Wray's address.

The challenge, according to Wray, lies in discerning the intent behind this cyber pre-positioning, which aligns with China's broader strategy to deter the U.S. from defending Taiwan. Taiwan counters China's sovereignty claims, emphasizing that only its people can decide their future. Earlier this week, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson denied any government links to Volt Typhoon, describing it instead as part of a criminal ransomware group.

“The fact is, the PRC’s targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting,” he said. And, he added, the immense size—and expanding nature—of the CCP’s hacking program isn’t just aimed at stealing American intellectual property. “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,” Wray added, as reported by the FBI.

“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,” Wray added, per the FBI.

In a statement printed by Reuters, the Chinese Embassy in Washington cited the MFA spokesperson's comments, arguing, “Some in the US have been using origin-tracing of cyberattacks as a tool to hit and frame China, claiming the US to be the victim while it's the other way round, and politicizing cybersecurity issues.”

Wray also noted that China's hackers manage a series of botnets—networks of compromised personal computers and servers globally—to conceal their malicious cyber activities. Notable American technology and cybersecurity companies, including Microsoft and Google, have previously attributed Volt Typhoon to China.

Wray highlighted the current measures being taken to address this threat, namely “joint, sequenced operations” with security partners.

“As part of those operations, we’re often sharing targeting and other information with partners like U.S. Cyber Command, foreign law enforcement agencies, the CIA, and others, and then acting as one,” he said, according to the FBI press release.