China wants to target critical infrastructure like water facilities and energy grids, FBI director said

Chinese state-sponsored hackers have conducted widespread cyberattacks on critical American infrastructure in recent years, intending to give the country the ability to cause “a devastating blow” against the US, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The fact is, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting,” he told a security conference in Nashville on Thursday, describing China’s hacking programme as growing in strength.

“It’s using that mass, those numbers, to give itself the ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing,” he added.

Last year, security analysts at Microsoft identified mysterious code linked to communications systems in Guam, the US territory in the Pacific with a massive strategic air base.

Officials believe the code was the work of Volt Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group.

  • penquin@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    I mean a lot of government shit is still on the old cobol code.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      You can’t upgrade when congress won’t allocate money for your department to do so. Or raise the taxes necessary to raise that money.

      • penquin@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Fuck raising taxes (unless it’s only rich fucks and corporations then I’m OK with it) they can take 1% of that infinite money stream they have running for the defense budget. We don’t $1 trillion for the military

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I’m not sure why you assumed I meant anyone other than the rich and corporations on the Lemmy news community.

          • penquin@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            I didn’t assume anything. You didn’t specify so I wanted to specify it to make it known. High five :)

          • Promethiel@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I see this happen to you a lot; don’t forget the safest place to make and attack straw-men is usually the place with the least valid targets. You’re a perpetual victim of missed nuance and that is the cost of discourse nowadays. I’d say don’t let the bastards grind you down but there’s not even that many here just people assuming you’re the bastard.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          We don’t even need to increase taxes at all, the budget they have is completely insane, it’s that lie that keeps getting us to the “we don’t have the money so we need to raise taxes”. We have it, we just have children who don’t know how to manage it spending it.

          • penquin@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Yeah, it’s insane that we are approaching the one trillion a year for the defense budget. I can only imagine the amount of fraud and money stealing that goes into that shit.

            • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Yep, check out how much we spend on healthcare. It’s nearly double of what other countries spend per person via single payer. That’s how fucked the system is. We literally can, right this very second, implement single payer and have the funds for it.

              • penquin@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                Where does the Healthcare money go? Are you like talking medicaid and Medicare?

                • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/

                  Mostly costs from insurance and private industry charging prices that are just insane.

                  Also don’t cry when you see the life expectancy vs per capita cost… Germany is #2 cost wise and we’re still 4k over what they spend on their people. We literally spend so much and get so little in return.

                  On a per person basis, U.S. health spending is nearly double that of similarly large and wealthy nations. In 2022, the U.S. spent over $4,000 more per capita on healthcare than the next highest spending country. Meanwhile, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy among peer countries.

                  • penquin@lemm.ee
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                    7 months ago

                    It’s so fucked up how private companies triple and quadruple their fees once they see the word “government”. Shit should be heavily regulated, but we just have a truly shitty and corrupt government.