THE FBI said on Monday that China is behind more cyber-attacks against the United States than all other nations combined.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Christopher A. Wray said in a speech titled Countering Threats Posed by the Chinese Government Inside the US that China’s threat to the United States is “more brazen” than ever before.
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The scathing speech — which emphasized that the Chinese government is the problem, not its citizens — took place at the Reagan Presidential Library just days before Beijing is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Wray stated that China targets the United States every day with cyber-attacks and that currently, the FBI is investigating over 2,000 cases of the Chinese government trying to steal American innovation and technology.
“The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries—so much so that, as you heard, we’re constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations, about every 12 hours or so,” Wray said.
The FBI director insisted in his speech that despite the United States’ conflict with Russia, China remains our biggest threat, even “bigger than those of every other major nation combined.”
According to Wray, this is the case because the country has “a lot of funding and sophisticated tools, and [is] often joining forces with cybercriminals – in effect, cyber mercenaries.”
Wray admitted in a recent interview with NBC that he was shocked by China’s unfaltering efforts to steal US technology when he became FBI director in 2017.
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“This one blew me away. And I’m not the kind of guy that uses words like ‘blown away’ easily,” he told the NBC interviewer.
In the years since, the threat from the Chinese government has only grown, according to Wray, who said that they have targeted even more companies and workers – from small groups to big service providers.
The FBI director noted that the consequences from the Chinese government’s espionage efforts aren’t just that Chinese companies get ahead, but that American-based corporations get pushed behind.
“That harm — company failures, job losses — has been building for a decade to the crush we feel today. It’s harm felt across the country, by workers in a whole range of industries,” Wray said.
Despite the FBI’s reports, Chinese government officials consistently reject the accusations, insisting that they are baseless.
Last July, Chinese embassy spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the United States “ganged up with its allies to make unwarranted accusations against Chinese cybersecurity.”
“This was made up out of thin air and confused right and wrong. It is purely a smear and suppression with political motives,” he added.
Wray on Monday reiterated that the Bureau is in for a “long fight” against the Chinese government “and everyone involved in that fight can be certain that you will have no more committed partner than the FBI.”
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In other news, Apple has revealed a bunch of new emojis for the iPhone, including a pregnant man and two saucy symbols.
Experts have warned that future space launches could be jeopardized if “stupid” regimes like Russia don’t stop blasting the skies creating debris.
And the most popular phone since the millennium has been unveiled, with many shocked to find out it’s not an iPhone.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
