Chicoms accused of cyber ransomware attacks

 Washington Examiner:

Cyberattackers linked to a Chinese spy agency conducted a major ransomware attack against an American company, adding a new layer of complexity to a threat usually attributed to Russia, according to President Joe Biden’s administration.

"This was surprising to us," a senior administration official acknowledged in a media briefing Sunday on how China’s Ministry of State Security has emerged as a major cybersecurity threat. "And, in fact, one of the reasons that we've put so much work into this attribution is because it really gave us new insights on the MSS's work and on the kind of aggressive behavior that we're seeing coming out of China."

China is also responsible for the Microsoft Exchange hack, detected in March, that affected "tens of thousands of computers around the world," according to the official.

The scale and severity of those hacks spurred a chorus of American allies to join U.S. officials in condemning Beijing’s behavior, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — a milestone in American efforts to rally the transatlantic allies against threats emanating from the Chinese Communist regime.

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Biden administration officials declined to provide details on the ransomware attack attributed to China-affiliated hackers, but the new announcement brings China into the first rank of cyberthreats against the United States and other democratic allies — and not always for pure strategic advantage.

"What we saw [that was] really surprising and new here was the use of criminal contract hackers, as I said, to conduct this unsanctioned cyberoperation and the — really, the criminal activity for financial gain," the senior administration official said. "That was really eye-opening and surprising for us."

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Democrats including Biden have underplayed the China threat.  I think they did so because they are naturally oppositional to anything Trump says even if it is proven to be true.   China is much more of a threat to the US than Russia.  Texas has a stronger economy than Russia.