Preventing cyberattacks from China is DHS’s top infrastructure security priority

Combating “cyber and other threats posed by the People’s Republic of China” (PRC) is a top priority for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the end of 2025, according to a report. guidance document the department announced last Thursday. The document outlines a “society-wide effort” to protect critical infrastructure against external threats, and China is at the top of the list.

Other priorities include managing the “evolving risks” of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities, preparing for climate change-related risks in critical infrastructure, and resolving dependence on satellite-based services and communications.

“From the banking system to the electrical grid, from health care to our nation’s water systems and more, we depend on the reliable functioning of our critical infrastructure as a matter of national, economic and public security,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. said in one declaration.

According to the memo, the federal government and intelligence community view China as one of the greatest risks to national security and are particularly concerned about China’s ability and “willingness” to conduct cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure. The memo also warns of potential threats from “other malign ‘gray zone’ activities,” including financial investments, “traditional espionage” and insider threats.

In April of this year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that hackers linked to the Chinese government had access to US critical infrastructure and were waiting for “the right moment to deliver a devastating blow.” In a speech at the Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, Wray said hackers from the cyber group Volt Typhoon had breached several American companies in the telecommunications, energy and water sectors.

DHS has established a China Working Group in 2020 to confront the “growing threat” of “China’s malign activity in the domains of trade, cybersecurity, immigration and intellectual property,” said then-acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf at the time.

In 2022, DHS published a “strategic action plan” to combat China’s threats to national security, analyzing everything from immigration violations to intellectual property rights violations. Action items included looking for ways to expand trade “with nascent chip sectors and like-minded economic partners, including India and Taiwan” and prioritizing efforts to protect U.S. infrastructure from “malicious cyber activity of the PRC.” And last year, Mayorkas announced a Department-wide 90-day “PRC Threat Sprint.” Like the 2022 plan, the sprint emphasized the need to defend critical infrastructure against potential cyberattacks, as well as a commitment to using DHS’s immigration enforcement apparatus to identify “illicit travelers” from China coming to the United States. US to “gather intelligence, steal intellectual property and harass dissidents.”

Congress has also become increasingly aggressive toward China. In 2013, the House Homeland Security Committee’s cybersecurity subcommittee held a hearing about the threats that China, Russia and Iran posed to US infrastructure. Congress’ effort to ban TikTok unless it divests itself of its Beijing-based parent company is largely rooted in national security concerns. Earlier this month, the House Homeland Security Committee advanced an account this would prevent DHS from purchasing batteries from six Chinese companies.