It is becoming increasingly clear that Chinese computer hackers have infiltrated American military and civil critical infrastructure in ways which could cripple the US response to any potential armed aggression from China.
This strategy, which goes back as far as Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”, involves attacking the communications, transport, energy, water and health systems with cyber attacks in order to disable an opponent before battle is even joined.
It has become evident that these malicious activities are being conducted on a much larger scale than ever before.
In February 2021, US intelligence agencies became aware of a serious threat to national security related to Chinese hacking.
Microsoft then reported that the month after this discovery Chinese hackers were clandestinely extracting data from State Department and Commerce Department servers as well as other Western European entities.
Additionally, it was found that China was responsible for infiltrating the Microsoft Exchange server earlier in the year.
The UK Foreign Office and National Cyber Security Centre also pointed out that China posed a major long-term risk to economic and national security at NATO’s 2022 Summit.
The US government is attempting to assess how vulnerable they are to cyber warfare launched by China while their allies such as the UK are far behind in terms of responding adequately thus leaving them exposed to further infiltration attempts by Beijing.
It is believed that large amounts of British data (both encrypted and unencrypted) has been stolen through their involvement in nuclear sector projects among other things.
Although this information cannot be accessed now it could be accessed when quantum computing technology advances enough so they can crack codes protecting them currently.
It is essential for all Western countries allied with America to recognize how dangerous the Chinese Communist Party truly is if they want to prevent future disaster brought on by their malicious hybrid operations or cyber attacks on military forces or civil critical infrastructure.
