Rogue Company

U.S. officials and lawmakers say China is the problem not only Huawei
By Joseph Marks

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Trump administration officials have warned for months that Huawei’s global expansion into next-generation 5G wireless networks would amplify the threat of Chinese digital spying.
But now they’re taking the gloves off, accusing the Chinese government of running roughshod over international norms and its own laws to steal Western innovations. 

The stepped up rhetoric comes as President Trump imposed high tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports, leading to a major escalation in trade hostilities between the two countries.
The move to 5G makes concerns about spying and sabotage significantly more pressing because its super-fast speeds will allow far more systems critical to public safety to run on wireless internet connections, such as high-tech medical equipment and driverless cars.
If Huawei gains a foothold in U.S. allies’ 5G networks, the Chinese government could force the company to send software updates to spy on Western companies or sabotage critical infrastructure, Chris Krebs, director of the Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warned lawmakers during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.
Beijing could also exploit hidden vulnerabilities that already exist in Huawei products to hack adversaries or it could plant spies inside Huawei teams that work abroad servicing the company’s technology, Krebs said.
“It’s not about overseeing Huawei. It’s about overseeing China,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (S.C.) said during the hearing.
Administration officials formerly attributed their concerns about Huawei to a 2017 cybersecurity law they said would force the company to cooperate with Chinese intelligence requests. 

But Krebs abandoned that nicety Tuesday.
“This is a single-party government. Everything that flows from the central party is a manifestation of their philosophy,” he said. 

“The [cybersecurity] law is important because it is telling you what they want to do. But they’re going to get what they want anyway, law or not.”
The U.S. and China stepped away from trade negotiations last week amid recriminations, and the heightened rhetoric on digital spying probably will make tensions worse.
The White House, which has struggled to convince allies to restrict Huawei from their 5G networks, may also impose its own ban on Huawei as soon as this week, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Lawmakers are also taking a cue from the administration and moving to restrict China from access to U.S. technological innovations.
On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill to bar exporting large categories of technologies to China including artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors and advanced construction equipment.
Hawley and five other Republicans also proposed another bill to bar Chinese students from science or engineering schools connected with the People’s Liberation Army from receiving U.S. visas.
“This is a strategy with multiple tentacles,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said, describing Chinese digital spying efforts, “and we as members of Congress need to understand every one of those and chop them off.”

American Recklessness

Amazed at lack of concern over grave threats from China: FBI official
By MIKE LEVINE and LEE FERRAN

In the past six months alone, U.S. news outlets and other publications have unleashed several hundred articles spotlighting the robust cyber-espionage threat the U.S. says is emanating from China. 

Congress has also held open hearings on the matter, and Trump administration officials have traveled the country to publicly warn Americans of the growing danger.
But the message has yet to be sufficiently received, the FBI's top counterintelligence official told senators on Wednesday, during another congressional hearing on the issue.
FBI Assistant Director Bill Priestap said he is still amazed at the lack of understanding of the gravity of the threat among those being targeted the most by China.
"This is the most severe counterintelligence threat facing our nation today," Priestap said during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. 

"What hangs in the balance is not just the future of the U.S., but the future of the world."
The committee's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said public focus on "all things Russia" for the past two years has "distracted attention from arguably a greater, more existential threat: China's efforts to overtake the United States as the world's preeminent superpower in all phases of society."
Priestap and two other senior U.S. officials painted a dire picture of China's aim to overcome U.S. innovations through both legal and illegal means – leveraging everything from corporate takeovers, to cyber-espionage, to "leaning on" Chinese nationals in U.S. tech firms and at educational institutions.

Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee.

Priestap noted that he recently visited three states to meet with business leaders there about the cyberthreat facing their companies.
"On the one hand, I was amazed at some of those business leaders' understanding of the way the threat is working today. On the other hand, with different business leaders, I was amazed at the lack of understanding of the gravity, capabilities [and] methodologies of China," he said.
Testifying beside Priestap, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, Assistant Attorney General John Demers, pointed to four ongoing court cases against Chinese nationals involved in plots to steal trade or military secrets from the United States.
Meanwhile, underscoring his own concerns, Priestap cited surveys showing that – when people around the world are asked to name the nation states presenting the biggest national security risks to the home countries – China is always "toward the bottom." 

And he said, "There's still work to be done by the U.S. government in messaging to the American people the gravity of the threat we're facing."
"Again, there are pockets of great understanding of the threat we're facing, and effective responses," he added. 

"But in my opinion, we've got to knit that together better. We need more people in government, more people in business, more people in academia pulling in the same direction to combat this threat effectively."
The key, he said, is "raising awareness of the threat," including ensuring that business and academic institutions know how they're being targeted, and informing the public about security risks to their data and efforts by foreign governments to influence Americans online.
Wednesday's hearing came a day after a U.S. official told ABC News that the Justice Department is preparing additional indictments against Chinese cyber-spies, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Past ABC News reports have detailed purported Chinese thefts of technology related to everything from advanced fighter aircraft to corn seeds.