In a recent meeting of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, several witnesses, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, testified during a hearing called "The CCP Cyber Threat to the American Homeland and National Security."
One witness warned that China's strategic plan is to infiltrate the U.S. cyber infrastructure, induce panic, and unsettle everyday American life.
In short, Wray said the hackers intend to "find and prepare to destroy or degrade the civilian critical infrastructure that keeps us safe and prosperous." Even if the U.S. were to dedicate all of its cyber personnel to China, he said it would still be outnumbered "by at least 50-to-1."
Military analyst and strategist Bob Maginnis says the Chinese have entire units dedicated to targeting America's infrastructure.
"That's why this sophistication of our cyber defenses has gone up tremendously, and it must," he tells AFN. "They're always finding a way to get around those firewalls that we create. The problem is a lot of our infrastructure is old and it is not doing the type of counterwork that we necessarily want."
Meanwhile, there is no official mandate to upgrade cybersecurity.
"The government does not control that stuff," notes Maginnis. "It's an entrepreneurial world out there for us, and we can't force oil industries, electrical industries. We can regulate them, but we can't force them."
While some are taking the necessary steps to begin to address that, the defense analyst concludes that "we are behind the 8 ball on this because we haven't come to the realization early enough that the threat is real and growing."
At the hearing, Wray noted only the government and the private sector could effectively protect against the potential Chinese threat and said any continued cyber defense should include the American public.
