Dem
52
Ties
1
GOP
47
Chinese government-sponsored hackers, known as QTFY, have penetrated many U.S. government computers, including those at the Dept. of Energy (which manages the U.S. nuclear arsenal), HHS, the DoJ, and many other departments. The hackers have also penetrated civilian networks and computers, including those of telecomm providers, hospitals, power and water companies, and more. There were also attempts to penetrate the Senate, NASA, the DoJ, the Fed, and more. Taking the government's word for which attempts were successful and which were not would be rather naive.
Why is this important? Well, suppose China wants to finally "reunite" Taiwan with the mother country—by invading it. A few hours before the invasion starts it disables many U.S. government computers as well as turning off the power, water, telephone, and cellular service in a dozen large U.S. cities, including all traffic lights (which would cause total gridlock everywhere). Then while the president is dealing with this five-alarm fire (for example, during morning rush hour), China invades Taiwan. Would a deeply distracted president be able to respond? Would the president even prioritize savng Taiwan over dealing with the massive civilian disruption? China is making a bet here.
Is the U.S. doing anything about this? For example, does it have an agency to defend against this kind of hostile attacks? Fortunately, yes (but hold on for a second). In 2007, George W. Bush, to his credit, recognized the the threat of a Cyber attack and created an agency, the NPPD, to defend against attacks. In 2018, Donald Trump 1.0 signed a bill promoting the NPPD to a full-blown federal agency called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The initial director was Chris Krebs, a respected professional in the area of cybersecurity and risk management.
On Nov. 17, 2020, two weeks after the 2020 election, Trump fired Krebs for openly stating that 59 election security experts agreed that the 2020 election was not hacked and Trump's claims that it was were false. But this was only the first round of Trump's attacks on CISA and other cybersecurity agencies. On April 3, 2025, Trump 2.0 fired the well-respected head of the U.S. Cyber Command, four-star Gen. Timothy Haugh, because Laura Loomer didn't think he was loyal enough to Trump. Trump followed that up by slashing CISA's budget, requiring the agency to fire 1,000 employees. Now people are asking "how did the Chinese attacks happen?" Beats us. (V)