China's Cybersecurity ‘Pearl Harbor' Against America: ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once'
Commentary
China's multidimensional war against U.S. interests is already underway and well-documented. One underappreciated dimension of its attack on American primacy, however, is the arena of cybersecurity.
For decades, Communist China's spies, hackers and businessmen have feasted on the
In the last two years, however, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) cyber-attacks against America have
These changes in the CCP's cyber offensive on America consist of two basic capabilities.
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The newer capability is China's comprehensive data-collection operation, given the title of 'Salt Typhoon' by Microsoft, and known by other names, such as '
China is also simultaneously
The second revolutionary advance in China's offensive cyber-warfare capabilities that target U.S. interests is more deadly. It threatens a Pearl Harbor-magnitude attack on America. '
Then U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, shortly before he was appointed National Security Advisor, stated in an
'[W]e have been, over the years, trying to play better and better defense when it comes to cyber. We need to start going on offense and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences to private actors and nation state actors that continue to steal our data, that continue to spy on us, and that even worse, with the Volt Typhoon penetration, that are literally putting cyber time bombs on our infrastructure, our water systems, our grids, even our ports.'
China could
The gravity of this weaponization of cyberspace at the strategic level has been
Volt Typhoon is devised to create chaos in the United States. Jen Easterly, former head of the US Cybesecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,
If China is successful in placing undiscovered and undefused malware that is capable of disabling critical infrastructure in the United States, the result would most likely be the complete loss of confidence in America's ability to protect 'Free Asia' or anyone else, and enabling China to be closer to achieving its goal of ruling in the Indo-Pacific region, which it appears to see as the
The Trump Administration's plan of action would do well to include massive arms deliveries to Taiwan and encouraging the island democracy to move to a war footing. President Donald Trump has already sent
Trump might also convene a cabinet meeting to assure that all aspects of American public and private capabilities should be mobilized to build resiliency in critical national infrastructure, while simultaneously examining U.S. cyberspace vulnerabilities.
The United States also might also go on the offense and target China's critical national infrastructure, perhaps starting with the Cyberspace Administration of China?
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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