Experts watching China for cyberattack retaliation against Taiwan

The United States is carefully watching China for any form of cyberattack retaliation against supporting Taiwan, Politico reports. Following visits from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers recently to Taiwan, cybersecurity experts report increased activity from China hacking teams against the west.

Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs told attendees at Black Hat conference in Las Vegas to “prepare for any potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan”, and for China to launch “cyberattacks on supply chains that would quickly impact Americans.”

The tensions are clearly rising in the Pacific, and no one is quite sure where China—or its allies like Russia—may do next whether it’s in Asia or Europe.

Krebs believes “every single company” should be performing “simulations, scenarios, impact assessments, tabletop exercises…around what happening around the Strait of Taiwan.”

But that’s easier said than done. And extremely expensive.

Krebs isn’t alone in his assessment, however.

Former State Department Cybersecurity Coordinator Chris Painter said he is “sure they [China] have access to [American] systems. They and Russia are the two most capable state actors other than the U.S.”

Rest assured, China is conducting espionage and cyber offensive maneuvers as we speak. It’s just a question of where, and when, we will discover them.