Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) on Friday sent a letter to the Cybersecurity Agency regarding vulnerabilities in U.S. critical infrastructure and the agency’s response to the Chinese government-backed state hacker group Bolt Typhoon.
Vance, Breitbart News has obtained, told Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly that critical U.S. infrastructure had been compromised by the Chinese government’s “state-sponsored hacker group known as Bolt Typhoon.” He wrote a letter about how he was “under attack.” The impact of a Bolt Typhoon attack on America’s infrastructure could be enormous, the Ohio senator said.
The effects of a full-scale Bolt Typhoon attack on U.S. critical infrastructure could be devastating, throwing our nation into chaos at the very moment it is under military attack from a foreign adversary. Impacts of a Bolt Typhoon attack would likely include threats to the U.S. military due to power and water disruptions to military installations and critical supply chains.
Senator Vance Letter to CISA 5.10 by Breitbart News On Scribd
Vance noted that Bolt Typhoon has “compromised hundreds of thousands of devices since it was first made public.” identified Announced by Microsoft in May 2023. ” In June 2023, the National Security Agency (NSA), CISA, FBI, and other international cybersecurity agencies issued a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) regarding the Bolt Typhoon’s ability to attack critical infrastructure. CISA in March 2024 issued Recommendations on best practices for hardening systems against Bolt Typhoon.
Rob Ames, Staff Threat Researcher at SecurityScorecard said: explained Volt Typhoon is said to use more “hands-on keyboard technology” rather than relying on activities typically exploited by malware.
The “critical infrastructure” sector is particularly vulnerable to the Bolt Typhoon hack. These fields are include Communications systems, energy production, and government facilities are “so important to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on national security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.” It is believed that this will have an impact on
Vance writes of the Bolt Typhoon threat:
In fact, experts believe the group has been targeting critical infrastructure in the United States since mid-2021 using malicious software that infiltrates internet-connected systems. On January 31, 2024, the FBI reported that Bolt had disrupted some of his Typhoon operations by removing the group’s malware from a small office router.
However, on February 7, 2024, CISA, the FBI, and other U.S. government agencies and Five Eyes partners issued an important recommendation stating that Bolt Typhoon could be pre-positioned in critical infrastructure networks and “It is enabling the disruption or destruction of infrastructure.” Services in the event of heightened geopolitical tensions. ”
To better understand the risks of Bolt Typhoon, Vance asked Easterly to answer the following questions:
1. What is CISA’s understanding of how Bolt Typhoon became integrated into U.S. critical infrastructure?
2. Why did CISA issue a warning about the imminent risk posed by Bolt Typhoon earlier this year?
3. How many U.S. public or private critical infrastructure entities in the telecommunications, energy, transportation systems, water and wastewater systems sectors are affected by Bolt Typhoon?
4. Are there other critical infrastructure sectors affected by Bolt Typhoon? If so, which sectors (other than those listed in question 3)?
5. According to reports, CISA is working with departmental risk management agencies to engage departments regarding Bolt Typhoon. Which agency specifically?
6. What Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) knows about Bolt Typhoon?
7. How many individual network devices in the United States have been or could be affected by Bolt Typhoon?
8. In response to Question 5, what strategies has CISA and/or the department risk management agency designed and/or implemented to mitigate the Bolt Typhoon threat?
9. How many calls have you received to CISA’s 24/7 Operations Center regarding Bolt Typhoon since January 1, 2023?
Concerns among U.S. officials have grown so great that Nathaniel Fick, the State Department’s envoy for cyberspace and digital policy, said in May that U.S. and Chinese officials had been using Bolt Typhoon to target critical U.S. infrastructure. He said they discussed espionage activities.
fic Said Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Chinese officials: “It’s clear that it is dangerous to put U.S. critical infrastructure at risk, especially civilian critical infrastructure.” It’s like an escalator. That’s not acceptable. ”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
