FBI director warns of Chinese hackers planning attacks on U.S. infrastructure

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Chinese hacking groups were laying the groundwork for major strikes on critical U.S. infrastructure.

Wray made the remarks during a speech at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee at its Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, Reuters reported. Said cybergroups, he warned, were merely waiting for the opportunity to strike a "devastating blow."

He specifically warned of Volt Typhoon, an active hacking effort that he said had infiltrated key American water, energy, and communications firms. China denies any link between its government and that operation.

Beijing, Wray indicated, was developing the capacity to "land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic."

His remarks build on warnings he gave to Congress during a hearing in January in which he said that China "has a bigger hacking program than that of every major nation combined."

"If you took every single one of the FBI's cyber agents and intelligence analysts and focused them exclusively on the China threat, China's hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to one," he added.

Geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington remain high, in part due to Chinese aspirations to control Taiwan. Governed by the Republic of China, the island has remained effectively independent from the mainland since the nationalist forces evacuated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War.

Both Asian governments agree in principle on the existence of a single, unified Chinese state that includes the territory of both, though each lays claim to that mantle.

Chinese hackers are far from the only point of concern for American security agencies, moreover. Last year a suspected Chinese spy balloon made its way through American airspace, attracting considerable media attention, before the military shot it down off the coast of the Carolinas.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.