US President Donald Trump’s leading adviser on cyber security said on Tuesday that China is the “most aggressive” cyber adversary faced by the US, and that Beijing is taking aim at technology infrastructure with “growing competence, sophistication and scale.”
Sean Cairncross, the Trump administration’s national cyber director, was at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington where he spoke on the continuing fallout from the Salt Typhoon attack, first flagged by US cybersecurity experts in December.
Technology security analysts and US cyber defence experts say the attack was sponsored by China, and that it infiltrated US communications companies with the aim of compromising consumer data.
Officials said initially that eight US companies had been affected, but that number has continued to rise. State-sponsored hackers in China have also been accused of breaching the US Treasury Department, along with another hack referred to as Volt.
“Volt and Salt Typhoon are the most egregious examples of China’s audacity,” Mr Cairncross said. “We cannot expect this behaviour to change if we’re ambiguous about it.”
He said the Trump White House has sought to enlist stakeholders throughout the country, including companies in the private sector, to assist the government’s efforts to blunt China’s cyber efforts.
China has denied accusations that it sponsors cyber attacks, although many US technology experts remain sceptical.
To prevent China from succeeding, Mr Cairncross said that the Trump administration could reauthorise the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act, which sought to increase intelligence sharing between federal agencies and the private sector.
He said the government “must get its own house in order” by rapidly modernising techniques, hardening computer networks, updating cybersecurity technology and preparing for the effects of quantum computing, which could make it easier for cyber criminals to achieve their goals.
Despite what Mr Cairncross described as China’s continuing cyber attacks, he told the conference that he is confident the US can emerge unscathed.
“We will create an enduring advantage over China,” he said. “Today, I seek your engagement and your help together by putting American citizens first and by putting American companies first. We’ll put America first.”
Despite talk about the need for increased cyber vigilance, the Trump administration has come under criticism from tech experts.
Many of those criticisms stem from a report in March, which showed senior Trump White House officials like former national security adviser Mike Waltz and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth discussing US military operations in Yemen on the Signal messaging app.
A journalist was inadvertently included in the chat as well, leading to outrage from Congress and cybersecurity experts. Many considered the incident to show a concerning disregard for basic cyber protection at the highest levels of government.
The cyber summit, organised by the Billington CyberSecurity media company in Maryland, is sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Leidos, Booz Allen, Microsoft and others. Current and former security and cybersecurity figures were scheduled to speak.
