Kevin Dellicker for U.S. Congress

Last month, Christopher Wray, the Director of the FBI, delivered a scathing address about threats from the Chinese Communist Party. Here’s what he had to say about cybersecurity: “Chinese government hackers have stolen more of our personal and corporate data than every other nation combined.”

The Issue:

The Chinese government and its proxy organizations in China have been executing a systematic campaign to infiltrate American information systems and steal proprietary data for years. Most recently, China made headlines by hacking Microsoft’s Exchange email software, which affected 10,000 American companies. They’ve stolen hundreds of millions of pages of data from unsuspecting American companies, academic institutions, government agencies and non-profits, all to gain advantage against the United States. I’ve been affected myself. A few years ago, Chinese hackers broke into the Office of Personnel Management, collecting confidential information about millions of Americans with security clearances. Imagine how valuable it is to Chinese intelligence agencies to know intimate, personal details about the people who make up the U.S. national security infrastructure.

How It Affects Us:

Let’s again turn to Director Wray: “The harm from the Chinese government’s economic espionage isn’t just that its companies pull ahead based on illegally gotten technology. While they pull ahead, they push our companies and workers behind. And that harm—company failures, job losses—has been building for a decade to the crush that we feel today. It’s harm felt across the country in a whole range of industries.”

What Kevin Will Do About It:

This isn’t some far-away threat with nebulous consequences. It has a direct impact on the people of the Lehigh Valley. In Congress, I will work to:

• Restrict the use of information applications that send or store U.S. data in China.
• Assist U.S. institutions with additional cybersecurity protections to defend against Chinese hackers.
• Hold the Chinese government accountable for attacks launched against U.S. interests from Chinese hackers.
• Improve American offensive cyber capabilities.
• Respond forcefully against specific Chinese information attacks.
• Restrict China’s access to American hardware, software, and information technology, including access to operating systems, microchips, and wholesale components.

https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/countering-threats-posed-by-the-chinese-government-inside-the-us-wray-013122