With the US currently engaged in a cyberwar that has affected all sectors of the global economy, the safety of all Americans is constantly in danger.
With that in mind, yesterday’s alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) pertaining to the Ongoing Cyber Threats to US Water and Wastewater Systems provides a reminder of the potentially devastating results that can be achieved should an enemy of the US gain access to America’s critical infrastructure.
America has endured years of attacks from countries like Russia, Iran, North Korea, and in particular, China. China has been perhaps the biggest culprit in the cybersphere, as we’ve known since 2015 that the NSA had documented over 600 occurrences of “corporate, private or government 'Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage' that were attacked over a five-year period, with clusters in America's industrial centers," according to reports from the time.
Despite America’s attempts to mitigate these threats behind new initiatives, the constant attacks have continued, with one of the most recent notable intrusions being last week’s hack against Amazon’s streaming platform, Twitch, that saw its source code revealed.
Additionally, this week saw America’s effort to secure its cybersecurity suffer the indignity of having a Pentagon official quit his job as a result of his belief that America’s “AI capabilities and cyber defenses of some government departments were at kindergarten level.”
The resigning official, Nicolas Chaillan, told the Financial Times, "We have no competing fighting chance against China in fifteen to twenty years. Right now, it's already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion."
Chaillan also wrote in a LinkedIn post that he was “just tired of continuously chasing support and money to do my job. My office still has no billet and no funding, this year and the next."
The latter quote exemplifies the incompetence and failure that has come to define the Biden administration. Whether we are talking about the Southern Border, the energy crisis, the economy, or even Afghanistan, our new leadership is responsible for the decline of America’s reputation as the world’s leading superpower.
And the lack of respect we are seeing is increasingly apparent, as China has used the opportunity to terrorize Taiwanese airspace over the last two months while using its state media to attempt to ridicule the United States.
Perhaps the reason for this may well have been the fact that the United States and Europe have failed to punish the Chinese after making empty threats of increased sanctions in the aftermath of the Microsoft Exchange hack that affected 60,000 public and private organizations in the United States. The attack, which was perpetrated by Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat group Hafnium, was one of the most wide ranging attacks in recent history. Hafnium has also been known to target political groups including American think tanks, defense contractors, and researchers.
Despite his flaws, President Trump was far better at keeping the Chinese in check, as last June, major Chinese companies Huawei Technologies Co. and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. were added on to the Pentagon’s list of “Communist Chinese military companies operating in the United States,” subjecting them to potential sanctions.
So at this point, it seems that China is operating with impunity while America’s “Kindergarten Cops” in the Biden administration have failed to muster any meaningful response to the “Red Dragon.”
This all follows China’s withholding of vital personal protective equipment last year as they were failing to adhere to the terms of the Phase One trade deal negotiated by the Trump administration.
Will this all prove to be a prelude to the escalation of tensions? If it does, should Americans trust the Biden administration to lead us through a potential conflict?
These developments should provide solid bulletin board material for the GOP in next year’s midterms, as the 2022 elections truly represent America’s last attempt to pull this train wreck off the tracks before irreversible damage occurs.
Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, the Editorial Director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, has been published by websites including Newsmax, Townhall, American Thinker and BizPacReview.