The proliferation of cybersecurity attacks linked to China was brought up once again on Sunday as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray asserted that intelligence officials are faced with cybersecurity and espionage threats from China that are “unprecedented in history,” amounting to a new federal probe every 12 hours.
“The biggest threat we face as a country from a counterintelligence perspective is from the People’s Republic of China, and especially the Chinese Communist Party,” Wray stated, accusing China of targeting American innovation, trade secrets, and intellectual property “on a scale that’s unprecedented in history.”
The FBI chief’s comments came as part of a “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday, April 24. The interview took place at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 21.
“They have stolen more of Americans’ personal and corporate data than every nation combined,” the FBI Director claimed, noting that the scope of the China-linked hacking program targets every sector of the US economy, including agriculture, tech, healthcare, and aviation.
As of the April 21 interview, more than 2,000 China counterintelligence probes were active among the 56 FBI field offices.
“I can assure that it’s not because our agents don’t have enough else to do,” Wray quipped. “It’s a measure of how significant the threat is.”