Mace Opens Hearing on Countering the Cyberthreat from China

WASHINGTON – Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Chairwoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) delivered opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing titled “Red Alert: Countering the Cyberthreat from China.” In her opening statement, Subcommittee Chairwoman Mace highlighted how China’s cyberwarfare against the United States has matured and is part of its military strategy and plan to achieve its broader ambitions on the world stage. She continued by emphasizing the necessity of the U.S. maintaining its technological edge over China, including in cutting edge fields like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Below are Subcommittee Chairwoman Mace’s remarks as prepared for delivery.

Good afternoon,

Earlier this year, top intelligence and cybersecurity officials testified before the Select Committee on China about a vast, long term and ongoing campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to hack into the computer systems that operate America’s critical infrastructure—our dams, power plants, transportation hubs and other essential operations.

We don’t know the full extent of this campaign. Why?  First, the hacks are done in a manner designed to avoid detection. Second, the perpetrators aren’t trying to steal data or cause systems to immediately go haywire.

This campaign—labeled “Volt Typhoon”— has been underway for several years, at minimum. The Chinese Government and its state-sponsored actors are using an infiltration tactic called “living off the land.” The hackers’ aim is to “blend in with normal Windows system and network activities,” and remain undetected, according to one cybersecurity expert.

Using malicious software, Volt Typhoon finds vulnerabilities to penetrate Internet-connected systems to take control of devices like routers and security cameras.

But the goal here isn’t “smash and grab” type theft or immediate system disruption. It’s a lot more disturbing.

China is playing a long game.

Its silently pre-positioning itself, “for disruptive or destructive cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the United States.” That’s according to an advisory jointly issued this year by the National Security Agency, the FBI and other federal agencies. 

In other words, the CCP is biding its time until it has reason to awaken these cyber-sleeper cells. At the critical moment, they’ll trigger them to create confusion and disarray across America by disrupting our power supply, our transportation and communication networks—our water and food supply. 

That’s a terrifying scenario.

And it illustrates how China’s cyberwarfare against the United States has matured. It’s now part and parcel of its military strategy and its plan to achieve its broader ambitions on the world stage.

Earlier this year, General Paul Nakasone, former head of the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, testified that, “The People’s Republic of China poses a challenge unlike any our Nation and allies have faced before, competing fiercely in the information domain.”

Today’s hearing is a forum to discuss the challenge posed by China’s cyberwarfare— and how we must meet that challenge.

We know China is throwing massive money and manpower into its efforts. FBI Director Wray recently testified that, “the PRC has a bigger hacking program than that of every major nation combined. In fact, if you took every single one of the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts and focused them exclusively on the China threat, China’s hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to one.”

This speaks to the necessity of the U.S. maintaining its technological edge over China, including in cutting edge fields like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.  AI is increasingly being harnessed as both an offensive and defensive tool in cyberwarfare. And post-quantum cryptography will be key to safeguarding critical data in the future.

We also need to bolster cybersecurity partnerships between the federal government, the private sector and international allies. These are vital pathways for sharing threat information.

Finally, we need to widen our talent pipeline to help fill the hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity job vacancies that exist in the public and private sector in the United States.

To facilitate today’s dialogue, I am thrilled to have testifying today individuals who’ve recently served at the highest levels of the federal intelligence community.

But before I introduce them, I will first yield to Ranking Member Connolly for his opening statement.