McCrary Institute releases paper to help Americans understand the cyber threat coming from the People’s Republic of China
WASHINGTON – As the world turns its attention to the U.S.-China relationship this week, the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University today released a paper raising the alarm on the sophisticated cyber threat posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Code Red: A Guide to Understanding China’s Sophisticated Typhoon Cyber Campaigns helps succinctly explain recent cyber campaigns carried out against the U.S. and lays out the implications of the sustained, coordinated assault by the PRC on our national security, economic security and public health and safety.
Each campaign – Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, Flax Typhoon and so on – exhibits a real and present danger to Americans’ daily lives. As the paper points out, when these campaigns are taken together, they “represent a new phase of long-term, covert access to infrastructure systems that could be exploited at Beijing’s will.”
“Nearly every day brings a new headline about China’s cyber threats – so many that if you blink, you might miss one,” said McCrary Institute Director Frank Cilluffo. “These campaigns reflect a deliberate strategy by the Chinese Communist Party to gain advantage across military, economic and diplomatic fronts – not only to steal secrets, but to hold critical infrastructure at risk. The federal government must act with greater urgency to deter these operations, and critical infrastructure and state and local leaders must better understand their scope and intent. This paper seeks to define, in plain terms, the scale of the threat and aims to spark the discussion and action needed to protect our nation.”
This paper represents countless hours of work by the McCrary Institute Task Force on the PRC to centralize and distill key information about these threats so that relevant stakeholders and the public can better understand them and take action.
The task force is chaired by McCrary Institute Director Frank Cilluffo; William Evanina, CEO of The Evanina Group, LLC and Former Director of the National Counterintelligence Center; Brad Mediary, Executive Vice President and National Cyber Platform Lead at Booz Allen Hamilton; and RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, Senior Director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at FDD and Executive Director and Vice Commissioner of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
“The Chinese Typhoon campaign targeting the U.S. signifies a serious and alarming escalation in nation-state cyber activity,” said Evanina. “These campaigns have infiltrated various critical infrastructure sectors, aiming to steal data and exploit communications. Moreover, they seek to inflict damage and destruction with the intent to harm American citizens and create chaos within society. Warning lights are now blinking beyond red.”
“The PRC’s cyber operations keep reaching into our critical infrastructure, government, and boardrooms,” said Mediary. “As this report shows, defending against this threat is a team sport. Together, we must proactively collaborate and innovate to get and stay ahead of our nation’s adversaries to secure America’s future.”
“Chinese malicious cyber activity – across all of their Typhoon teams – is exposing our critical infrastructures to future disruption or destruction,” said Montgomery. “We need to counter this CCP ‘operational preparation of the battlefield’ by investing in more resilient and redundant networks to protect our key national security infrastructures.”
The McCrary Institute Task Force on the PRC is one of four standing task forces providing insights and recommendations to policy leaders in Washington as well as advice and research to leaders across critical infrastructure.
Read the full paper here.
Watch a video of our Task Force Co-Chairs briefly explaining each Typhoon campaign and sharing why Americans should be worried and why government and industry need to take urgent action.
Click here to listen to a special edition of our Cyber Focus podcast with commentary from our Task Force Chairs.
Find all of our content on the cyber threat posed by the People’s Republic of China at Threat Beat.
CONTACT: [email protected]
About the McCrary Institute at Auburn University
The McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University is dedicated to defending the systems that power our national and economic security, our communities and our way of life. Positioned at the intersection of policy, applied research and public-private partnerships, the Institute serves as a trusted convener of national leaders – shaping strategy, aligning priorities and driving real-world cybersecurity solutions to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Learn more at McCraryInstitute.com.
