(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Communist China can “plunge into darkness” the US military and critical sites in America through a sophisticated and massive cyberattack, US lawmakers have been told.
The warning came from Manny Cancel, senior vice president of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., who testified before the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the US House of Representatives.
“The Chinese activities are quite alarming. Chinese cyber activities are one of the most dynamic cyber threats. China continues to demonstrate increasing sophistication, including new and adaptive techniques to gain access to networks,” Cancel told Congress members, as cited by Bloomberg.
The report notes the power grid of the United States is becoming “increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks.”
At the same time, the committee has also found that “physical” attacks against the energy network, including vandalism incidents, went up by 77% in 2022 compared with 2021.
Cancel’s congressional testimony that China could wreak havoc on the US power supply through cyber weapons comes after a new report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has come to a similar conclusion.
According to the ODN document, the regime of the Chinese Communist Party is “almost certainly capable” of carrying out cyberattacks against America that would cause disruptions of US infrastructure services – among them railroad systems and oil and gas transit pipelines.
The House subcommittee hearing took place against growing diplomatic tensions with Beijing after last week’s reports that Chinese hackers broke into the email accounts of US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and State Department officials.
“Imagine what is possible if the CCP attacks our grid,” commented Republican US Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Reacting to the revelations from the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing, China’s Foreign Minister spokeswoman Mao Ning reiterated previous allegations by the Communist regime that it was a victim of foreign hacking.
She claimed that the United States committed “large-scale and indiscriminate cyberattacks on many countries,” and revelations about Chinese cyber weapons amounted to political accusations.
“We don’t think the US should hit out at China for political purposes,” Mao told a regular press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
