‘Bring the Fight to the Front Door’: Senator Demands Stronger Cyberdefense Against Chinese Hacking

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) is ceremonially sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris for the 118th Congress in the Old Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 3, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

The Pentagon’s cyberwarfare unit should go on the offense against hostile foreign hacking groups in response to a recent Chinese state-sponsored cyberattack that penetrated top U.S. agencies and stole tens of thousands of emails from officials, according to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).

“America needs more than just a good defense—It’s far past time to go on offense. We must bring the fight to the front door of hackers who would do us harm, and most critically, state-sponsored hacking groups,” Mr. Schmitt told The Epoch Times.

“Without adopting a strategy of forceful deterrence in cyberspace, state-sponsored actors will continue to run rampant with little fear of retaliation. Consistent and repeated shows of force by the United States in cyberspace will demonstrate to our adversaries that we are done with wrist slaps for major cyber provocations.”

At Mr. Schmitt’s request, State Department officials briefed Senate staffers about the scope of a Chinese cyberattack in May that targeted Microsoft systems and compromised the email accounts of 25 organizations, including senior officials from the State and Commerce departments. The briefing revealed that the hackers, dubbed Storm-0558, had accessed 60,000 emails from State Department accounts alone.

The Chinese hackers used sophisticated methods to “gain unfettered access to emails that are presumed to contain highly sensitive information related to U.S. government efforts to contain China,” Mr. Schmitt wrote in an Oct. 17 letter to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, the deputy commander of the U.S. Cyber Command.

“These types of attacks must not go unanswered.”

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He said that for far too long, the United States has relied solely on the defense of networks as its cyber strategy.

The “U.S. government should use all tools at its disposal to discourage and deter state-sponsored hacking groups from wreaking havoc on U.S. government information systems,” he said. “As opposed to simply patching vulnerabilities and going about regular business, it is time the United States takes the fight to the doorstep of malicious actors.”

Among the individuals whose email accounts were compromised were Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), and Nina Shea, senior fellow and director for the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.

Mr. Schmitt, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is seeking a briefing from the Cyber Command on “any previous, current, or future plans to disrupt Storm-0558” before Nov. 15.

“I support U.S. Cyber Command’s efforts to ensure our state-sponsored hacking groups like Storm-0558 are put on notice each time they attempt to conduct a Cyber-operation against the United States,” he said.

The Cyber Command has acknowledged having received Mr. Schmitt’s letter, the senator said.

At issue is not just Storm-0558 but also the large number of hackers that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deploys against other nations. In September, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a conference that Chinese hackers greatly outnumber his bureau’s personnel.

“China already has a bigger hacking program than every other major nation combined,” Mr. Wray said. “If each one of the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused on China exclusively, Chinese hackers would still outnumber our cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1.”

It isn’t just the cyber threats that Mr. Schmitt is concerned about. At a Senate hearing in September, he said the threat posed by the CCP “has reached critical levels.”

“As we get increasingly concerning reporting about China’s military growth and ambitions, I fear that the People’s Republic of China poses a threat to our country like none other we have had in our history, both militarily, economically, in their designs,” Mr. Schmitt said.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon warned in a report that China now has 500 operational nuclear warheads, with possibly more than 1,000 by 2030.