China poses the greatest threat to US cybersecurity, according to a report.
China’s communist regime poses the biggest threat to the United States in the cybersecurity domain, according to a newly published summary of a classified report released by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Sept. 12.
The “2023 DOD Cyber Strategy” report (pdf) serves as the baseline document for how the DOD is operationalizing the priorities of the “2022 National Security Strategy,” the “2022 National Defense Strategy,” and the “2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy,” officials said.
The latest report, which the Pentagon submitted to Congress in May, builds upon the “2018 DOD Cyber Strategy” and will “set a new strategic direction” for the Pentagon.
Currently, the United States is being challenged by “malicious cyber actors” seeking to exploit the nation’s technological vulnerabilities and undermine its military’s competitive edge,” the summary begins.
The Pentagon warns that such malicious cyber actors are targeting critical U.S. infrastructure and endangering the lives of the American people.
“Defending against and defeating these cyber threats is a Department of Defense imperative,” the summary continues. “As the Department’s cyber capabilities evolve, so do those of our adversaries. Both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia have embraced malicious cyber activity as a means to counter U.S. conventional military power and degrade the combat capability of the Joint Force.
“The PRC in particular sees superiority in cyberspace as core to its theories of victory and represents the Department’s pacing challenge in cyberspace. Using cyber means, the PRC has engaged in prolonged campaigns of espionage, theft, and compromise against key defense networks and broader U.S. critical infrastructure, especially the Defense Industrial Base (DIB),” it reads.
Communist China, according to the strategy summary, aims to gain dominance in cyberspace to become a “superpower” with “commensurate political, military, and economic influence” and is already attempting to shape the global technology ecosystem by exporting dangerous cyber capabilities to allied nations, and working to “accelerate the rise of digital authoritarianism around the globe.”
The Chinese regime routinely conducts malicious cyber activity against the United States as well as its allies and partners, the strategy notes, citing Beijing’s surveillance efforts of U.S. citizens and those considered enemies of the state, among other actions.
“Its efforts abroad are complemented by material strengths at home: a large technology industry and workforce, capable counterintelligence and cybersecurity systems, and an array of proxy organizations empowered to pursue malicious cyber activity,” the report reads. “This malicious cyber activity informs the PRC’s preparations for war.”
China Could Launch ‘Destructive’ Cyberattacks
“The Department will campaign in and through cyberspace to reinforce deterrence objectives while achieving informational and military advantages,” the strategy states. “Our adversaries will be made to doubt the efficacy of their military capabilities as well as the belief that they can conduct unattributed coercive actions against the United States.”
However, the report also warned that both China and Russia would likely use “destructive” cyberattacks against the United States in the event of a conflict or in a moment of crisis to “hinder military mobilization, sow chaos, and divert attention and resources” and that resilie
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