Nearly a year after the U.S. government first named and shamed an ongoing Chinese hacking campaign against American infrastructure, top cybersecurity leaders say the threat is still as palpable as ever.
China’s Volt Typhoon group has displayed a persistence that’s rare among nation-state hackers, experts say.
This has put insecure U.S. infrastructure, such as water systems and shipping ports, in the crosshairs of foreign adversaries.
“Am I alarmed and do I have heartburn over what Volt Typhoon and what other Chinese actors are capable of doing? Yes, absolutely,” Kemba Walden, the former acting national cyber director, said at last week’s Verify conference outside San Francisco.
“They’re motivated, they’re creative,” she added. “It tells me that we need to continue to focus on the basics.”
Last May, Microsoft and the National Security Agency publicly outlined how Volt Typhoon was stealthily lurking inside American infrastructure — in some cases, maintaining access to those networks for at least five years.
