China's New Hacking Prowess Poses Geopolitical Threats

The message from President Biden’s national security adviser was startling.

- Dustin Volz, Aruna Viswanatha, Sarah Krouse and Drew FitzGerald

Chinese hackers had gained the ability to shut down dozens of U.S. ports, power grids and other infrastructure targets at will, Jake Sullivan told telecommunications and technology executives at a secret meeting at the White House in the fall of 2023, according to people familiar with it. The attack could threaten lives, and the government needed the companies' help to root out the intruders.

What no one at the briefing knew, including Sullivan: China's hackers were already working their way deep inside U.S. telecom networks, too.

The two massive hacking operations have upended the West's understanding of what Beijing wants, while revealing the astonishing skill level and stealth of its keyboard warriors-once seen as the cyber equivalent of clumsy burglars.

China's hackers were previously thought to be interested chiefly in business secrets and private consumer data. But the latest hacks make clear they are now soldiers on the front lines of potential geopolitical conflict between the U.S. and China, in which cyberwarfare tools are expected to be powerful weapons.

U.S. computer networks are a "key battlefield in any future conflict" with China, said Brandon Wales, a former top U.S. cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security, who closely tracked China's hacking operations against American infrastructure. He said the operations "are designed to ensure they prevail by keeping the U.S. from projecting power, and inducing chaos at home."