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Title: WSJ Says China 'Acknowledged Its Role in U.S. Infrastructure Hacks'

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/13/0062...

Here's an update from the Wall Street Journal about a "widespread series of
alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure." China was behind it, "Chinese
officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting... according to people
familiar with the matter..." The Chinese delegation linked years of
intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports
and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people,
who declined to be named, said... U.S. officials went public last year with
unusually dire warnings about the uncovered Volt Typhoon effort. They
publicly attributed it to Beijing trying to get a foothold in U.S. computer
networks so its army could quickly detonate damaging cyberattacks during a
future conflict. [American officials at the meeting perceived the remarks as
"intended to scare the U.S. from involving itself if a conflict erupts in the
Taiwan Strait."] The Chinese official's remarks at the December meeting were
indirect and somewhat ambiguous, but most of the American delegation in the
room interpreted it as a tacit admission and a warning to the U.S. about
Taiwan, a former U.S. official familiar with the meeting said... In a
statement, the State Department didn't comment on the meeting but said the
U.S. had made clear to Beijing it will "take actions in response to Chinese
malicious cyber activity," describing the hacking as "some of the gravest and
most persistent threats to U.S. national security...." A Chinese official
would likely only acknowledge the intrusions even in a private setting if
instructed to do so by the top levels of Xi's government, said Dakota Cary, a
China expert at the cybersecurity firm SentinelOne. The tacit admission is
significant, he said, because it may reflect a view in Beijing that the
likeliest military conflict with the U.S. would be over Taiwan and that a
more direct signal about the stakes of involvement needed to be sent to the
Trump administration. "China wants U.S. officials to know that, yes, they do
have this capability, and they are willing to use it," Cary said. The article
notes that top U.S. officials have said America's Defense Department "will
pursue more offensive cyber strikes against China." But it adds that the
administration "also plans to dismiss hundreds of cybersecurity workers in
sweeping job cuts and last week fired the director of the National Security
Agency and his deputy, fanning concerns from some intelligence officials and
lawmakers that the government would be weakened in defending against the
attacks."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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