FBI Director Warns Congress of CCP Cyberattacks | China In Focus 2024-02-01 02:31

welcome to China in Focus I'm Tiffany Meyer our top story an FBI warning all about China the agency's chief says Chinese hackers are preparing to wreck havoc on Americans and harm infrastructure like water and power supplies steps China was taking in other words to find and prepare to destroy or degrade the civilian critical infrastructure that keeps us safe and prosperous Reports say China has vowed to keep its hands out of the 2024 us election process but current and historic records show the current promise may not align with beijing's history leaders in big Tech getting grilled by Congress yet again this time it's about the risks their products posed to Young Americans and the Pentagon is restricting more Chinese firms for their ties to the regime's military but what impact will it [Music] have [Music] on Capital Hill Wednesday FBI director Christopher Ray warning Congress of China's cyber operations targeting critical us infrastructure his testimony comes as the federal government thed a Beijing backed hacking campaign nd's Sam Wong has the details at a Committee hearing today FBI director Christopher Ray warned that Beijing is leveraging his cyber capability to Target critical us infrastructure that includes both military and civilians from water utilities and the electrical grid to oil and natural gas pipelines Beijing stayback hackers are targeting major infrastructure Across America according to FBI director Christopher Ray the operation is huge to the point that Chinese hackers outnumber the FBI's total cyber Resources by a staggering 50 to1 ratio during a testimony before the house La committee on the CCP Ray warned that beijing's threat to us INF structure could result in real world harm to Americans physical safety steps China was taking in other words to find and prepare to destroy or degrade the civilian critical infrastructure that keeps us safe and prosperous the hearing com say the justice department announced it is disabling a chinab back hacking campaign coot named Vol typhoon the group had attacked hundreds of office routers in order to access their data in the face of rising cyber threats from the CCP the committee's ranking member Roger Krishna Mory vow there would be repercussions first we will attribute it back to you if it's activated secondly that could be an act of war and third we will respond decisively in addition lawmakers fear that beijing's cyber campaign could compromise Washington's ability to help Taiwan especially during a potential Invasion by China some members of Congress told me we still have a long way ahead of us are you confidence in our response of and Readiness when it comes to tackling Chinese cyber threats in the US and how vulnerable are we at this point uh we're very vulnerable I think we have a good offense uh I think we have good Partnerships with foreign countries but in terms of just securing our homeland and our domestic critical infrastructure that's where I think we have a long way a long way to go this is going to be a persistent and chronic threat coming from the Chinese Communist party for as long as any of us are around reporting from Capital Hill Sam Wong ND news for more details on Chinese owned social media app Tik Tok we spoke to John Mills retired army colonel and former director for cyber security of the defense department John Mills thank you so for joining us great to have you back on the show Tiffany thank you always an honor to be on your show now lawmakers are pressing the tech CEOs of Tik Tock X and meta in a senate hearing today this is on online child safety now how has the social media landscape changing throughout the years become more vulnerable to Children especially from adversaries yeah this is an important one Tiffany um and I think the the one you didn't mention and I don't know if there if there's a way to subpoena them to give testimony is is Tick Tock um and uh Tik Tock obviously is controlled and uh is not really they don't really have Tik Tock uh in in China they have some other variants of it that are much more mod they have Tik Tock in Taiwan but they're good about filtering that in certain ways here we don't do that uh or to the best of my knowledge we don't do that and Tik Tok is is really uh it it really is intended to scramble brains uh and and the youth that is more and more where they get it from and it just it's creating this Psy psychological addiction to always reaching for their phone and seeing what the latest thing is on Tik tock on that note reports are showing I think Tik Tok CEO is present this is a lot of it is focused on the fenel trafficking and how social media is a big vehicle for that how do you view that though what is the solution here it seems we've had a lot of hearings especially just on Tik Tok but also social media in general but what are the steps needed to create change I think we have to make an example out of Tik Tok and drive it out of the American Market uh the Trump Administration was headed that way the Democrats have been a bit hesitant to throttle Tick Tock but it it is digital fentanyl nothing good comes out of it and it just the test is always there if it's so good why doesn't China allow it in China on the note of China actually I want to zoom out into Chinese hacking groups now the FBI and justice department have disabled a pervasive Chinese hacking Network that targeted thousands of critical infrastructure now that's according to a rotor exclus inclusive what was China's goal here in targeting these areas well I mean we have 18 critical infrastructures as designated by DHS um there's there's a move and there was a letter that just came out to make the maritime industry a 19th um but all of this is you would call this in military terms uh Advanced Force operations preparation of the battle operational preparation of the battlefield intelligence prep operation of the battlefield and this includes uh possibly even placing malware so when the time is is right they can simply uh try to flip the switch and their malware make sure certain things don't work or work in ways that are destructive John Mills thank you so much for your time Tiffany thank you so much besides the FBI the Central Intelligence Agency is also weighing in on the Chinese Communist Party CIA Chief William Burns says China is a bigger threat to the US than Russia he's also said that in the past two years the CIA has more than doubled its budget for countering China and those efforts aren't limited to the us. noting that the CIA was stepping up efforts across the world to compete with China big tech companies are back in the Capitol Hill Hot Seat in Washington members of Congress drilled to CEOs of social media companies Tik Tok metax and Snapchat the top fear child exploitation entities's Melina WIS cup reports from Washington concerns are mounting that social media platforms aren't doing enough to keep kids safe online the bipartisan nature of this topic was on full display today usually at hearings we see a lot of friction between Republicans and Democrats but today all of this pressure was directed at the witnesses themselves one example of this was when Senator Josh H pressured the CEO of meta Mark Zuckerberg to stand up and apologize to the families of the victims of child and drug trafficking now while this hearing was focused on all of the social media platforms on multiple occasions Senators pointed to the unique challenges with Tik Tock which is owned by a Chinese company under the direct influence of the Chinese Communist Party Tik Tock has become a quote platform of choice for predators to access engage and groom children for abuse based employees of your company have repeatedly accessed non-public data of United States citizens why should you not be banned in the United States of America Senator I disagree with your characterization many of what you have said we have explained in a lot of detail I am deeply concerned about the collection of data information and here in the US you look at what it is spreading the challenges the children that have lost their lives uh it's completely unacceptable dumb down our children or in some way launch a psych ological Warfare against America absolutely we know these platforms are also used for propaganda and on that note of propaganda Senator Tom Cotton made a fierce display of this when he asked Tik Tok CEO over and over again to acknowledge an ongoing genocide in China listen to this is the Chinese government committing genocide against the weaker people actually Senator I talk amazing about my company and I'm here to talk about what does yes or no you're here you're here to give testimony this truth and honest and complete are you scared that you'll lose your job if you say anything about negative about the Chinese Communist party now there are several bipartisan bills to address the issues with Tik Tok and other social media platforms but they often times face roadblocks here in congress with advocacy groups speaking out against the implications it could have for free speech and censorship one Senator telling me bluntly these companies have too much influence in the halls of Congress reporting from Capitol Hill Molina Weis cup NTD news to keep American Technology from aiding the Chinese military the Pentagon just listed a dozen more Chinese Tech firms it says are working with the beijing's forces the updated list was released Wednesday and includes a memory chipmaker and AI company and a lar technology manufacturer among other companies the list Works more like a bad reputation label than an actual ban its purpose is to warn us entities about the firm's ties to the Chinese military soic American businesses would be more cautious about conducting cooperation with them and while it may not ban us firms from working with them the 2024 National Defense Act does ban the Pentagon from working with any Chinese companies on the list many Chinese companies that self-describe as civil entities failed to declare their dual use products that's related to China's military civil Fusion strategy under which civilian firms are used to help Advance beijing's military development the the US is expanding the efforts to counter that tactic China has reportedly agreed not to interfere with the 2024 US presidential election CNN reports that Chinese Communist party leader Xi Jinping made the promise to President Biden in person last November during the US China Summit in San Francisco months later the US National Security adviser just confirmed the same message with China's foreign minister last weekend they spoke during meetings in land China has been accused of interfering with past bids for the White House will things really be different this time first China still poses a great threat to us cyber security reports show that in recent months American intelligence discovered that China hacked into US Maritime and transportation systems the move has been seen as a trial run by beig to see if it could disturb US military aid towards Taiwan in the event it decid to invade the island zooming out how did China medal in 2022 is US election an investigative report shuts light on the tactics it's based on National Intelligence Declassified last December it shows Chinese propaganda arms used Tik Tok to Target the presidential candidates from both parties the content was able to rack up tens of millions of views in the US the report also mentioned in 2021 Beijing identified us lawmakers to either punish them for their anti-china views or reward them for supporting Beijing Microsoft also reported that Chinese hackers posed as American voters online they use artificial intelligence to promote divisive content during the 2022 midterm elections looking ahead to the upcoming election I I think we can see a lot more uh you know there there there's clear uh bias by the Chinese Communist party to seow division in in US politics period uh whether or not they're favoring you know Donald Trump over uh Joe Joe Biden I can't imagine actually that they'd be favoring uh Donald Trump because he under his administration put some of the toughest um sanctions in place which have then been carried on by this current Administration um but if they can so you know if they can affect uh local state elections and or you know congre Congressional elections I think they will try to do that and put people who are sympathetic us officials say they are preparing for a variety of possible foreign interference attempts that might occur before the election especially from Top us adversaries like China Russia and Iran how trustworthy are the numbers from the Chinese Communist party let's take a look at China's reported fixed asset Investments last year 50 trillion un China's national Bureau of Statistics says that represents a 3% rise from 2022 but there's a problem that figure is not higher than that of the Year 2022 which totaled 57 trillion yen so from 2022 to 2023 China actually saw a 12% drop next would would like to take a moment to share some of your comments about our show we recently reported on Chinese college students who have been denied entry into the US due to spying suspicions one viewer took a sarcastic jab at the situation writing China declares war on the US and then asks why won't you educate our kids another viewer Vivian's private kitchen offered up a suggestion that the Chinese students getting deported should also have their information stored on a database and shared with America's allies don't forget to tell us what you think of today's show or if you have an idea for something you'd like to see us cover send us an email at China in focus at nd.com that's all for today's China InFocus on YouTube we're now sharing a shorten version of our program here after being demonetized for more than 3 years if you'd like to support us consider donating find us at donorbox.org ch- in-focus or subscribe to our partner platform epic TV where you can watch our full episodes here's what to look out for in our second half house Speaker Mike Johnson shedding light on forced Oregon harvesting in China he's vowing to punish the Chinese Communist party for human rights violations money flowing from China to the US and Japan China stocks have lost trillions of dollars in recent years a closer look at why and a complaint from New Zealand that Washington has neglected the Pacific what's behind the underlaying power contest in the region more on that after the break here on China and focus thanks for watching China and focus I'm Tiffany Meyer see you tomorrow