Microsoft warns that China hackers attacked U.S. infrastructure

[TheProle]

Microsoft warned on Wednesday that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had compromised “critical” U.S. cyber infrastructure across numerous industries with a focus on gathering intelligence.

The Chinese hacking group, codenamed “Volt Typhoon,” has operated since mid-2021, Microsoft said in an advisory. The organization is apparently working to disrupt “critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia,” Microsoft said, to stymie efforts during “future crises.”

The National Security Agency put out a bulletin on Wednesday, detailing how the hack works and how cybersecurity teams should respond.

The attack is apparently ongoing. In an advisory, Microsoft urged impacted customers to “close or change credentials for all compromised accounts.”

U.S. intelligence agencies became aware of the incursion in February, around the same time that a Chinese spy balloon was downed, the New York Times reported.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/microsoft-warns-that-china-hackers-attacked-us-infrastructure.html

[captain queeg]

1. I know hackers have been working on accessing the US electrical grid

Fortunately, I guess, there is no unified control system. They could certainly attack some regions though. Probably the Texas grid would be the most susceptible. I’m just basing that on their unwillingness to join the rest of the US in adopting NERC standards, though I suppose that could be to their benefit in a wide spread attack.

[MutantAndProud]

2. All of those ISPs, all of which host the major cell providers

Other major corporations (Apple/Google) which make the only brands of phones available (after BlackBerry’s demise), the MVNOs (smaller cell companies that use the bandwidth of the larger cell companies AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile etc). The AT&T and similar ISP’s that require you to use their managed routers.

It *all* gets swept up when you target the infrastructure this way. The entire internet and any modern connected device is potentially affected.

Fixes come from the top and it’s impossible to avoid government assistance since they permit/lease the domain names and international cables and inter-links. But this is the level of vulnerable we actually are. The potential for espionage is one step away from potential for manipulation and sabotage at any level of society when we’re this reliant on devices and software. There is no option but to fix this before we allow anything like an AI social credit style system they have.