Deb Fischer Grills FBI Chief Wray On Chinese Espionage Of 'Critical Civilian Infrastructure'

3 months ago

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) spoke about the FBI's ability to counter Chinese espionage in American agriculture and civilian infrastructure.

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Transcript

00:00 Senator Fischer. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for being here today Director Wray.

00:05 I continue to be concerned about the threat that the Chinese Communist government poses to critical infrastructure in the United States,

00:13 especially when it comes to cybersecurity. In Nebraska,

00:17 this presents distinct vulnerabilities for our agriculture industry and the nation's food supply. For instance, malicious code

00:24 contained

00:27 planting data and harm crop yields. It also can be used by foreign actors to steal our ag innovation.

00:33 What internal mechanisms is the FBI relying on to counter cyber threats to the agriculture industry from China specifically?

00:42 So we are specifically concerned not just as you are about the China threat more broadly,

00:49 but about the China threat as it relates to agriculture in particular.

00:53 I have visited our Omaha office a couple times. I met with our partners there, and I know from firsthand

01:00 experience and contact with them that they are acutely focused on specifically the threats to agriculture. In fact, they're

01:07 holding I think a big summit soon

01:10 that I was hearing about that's bringing people from all over the state and the region again very much focused on this issue.

01:17 We have seen

01:20 in the past the Chinese government or people from China acting on behalf of China

01:26 attempting to steal cutting-edge agricultural research,

01:29 even to the point of I know in Senator Moran's home state of Kansas,

01:34 they stopped a guy trying to fly out of the country with cutting-edge agricultural research. In Iowa,

01:41 I can remember we had guys out in the in the fields digging up genetically modified corn seed, and we prosecuted,

01:49 worked with the DOJ to prosecute them.

01:51 So there's the theft, the IP theft part, and we know that China has specifically

01:56 identified agriculture as one of its areas that it wants to target.

02:02 It's quite explicit about that. So that's a concern. You also brought up I think the critical infrastructure

02:10 dimensions of this, and we have seen the Chinese government attempting to target multiple sectors,

02:18 civilian sectors,

02:20 to pre-position to potentially cause havoc

02:23 at a time and place of their choosing. And so that's something that we're really trying to focus on.

02:28 So can you can you tell us that in in this setting?

02:32 Specifically what sectors and where that's happened, or should it be in a closed session?

02:38 There's some sectors I could share publicly.

02:42 Whether there's anything I could share about agriculture specifically on that, I'm not sure.

02:46 I know that what I can say publicly, but it gives you a flavor of what we're dealing with. We conducted with our partners a

02:54 court-authorized operation that took down and exposed a

02:58 Chinese government effort to pre-position on civilian critical infrastructure that included water,

03:05 telecommunications,

03:07 and a variety of others. And again, there was no legitimate purpose to be on the parts of the networks

03:14 they were on, other than to be in a position to wreak havoc at a time and place of their choosing.

03:20 Right, you know, we're in addition to the cybersecurity,

03:23 we're also worried about communications network, that infrastructure there that the Chinese are looking at. And it's been

03:31 a challenge to be able to fund

03:35 FCC, the rip and replace

03:38 program that's out there. So we we know that the Chinese have that telecom equipment there.

03:44 They've,

03:45 we know the security risks that are involved. Are you able to share any updates

03:51 today from the FBI's work to evaluate the Chinese network gear that's

03:57 located especially next to US military installations?

04:02 Again, if you could do it here, if it would need to be in a closed setting. Western Nebraska has assets.

04:09 Yeah, on the communications side,

04:12 and the whole rip and replace issue, that's probably something better reserved for another setting.

04:17 What I can tell you is that we have a number of investigations underway that relate to allegations

04:24 concerning buying up of land

04:28 near

04:30 installations that would be of concern.

04:32 And it's not that there's anything inherently unlawful about foreign purchase of land,

04:38 but we get concerned when the purchase,

04:41 purchaser may have ties back to a government that doesn't share our values, and it's positioned near some critical.

04:48 And that that's what we follow as well. Is there,

04:51 do you have enough

04:54 availability, is there enough transparency in these transactions to

04:58 easily discover if there's a connection to the Chinese there? As I said earlier, we have

05:05 concerns in Western Nebraska about some of this. So it is a challenge.

05:09 We are,

05:12 on farmland in particular, we are working with USDA to try to look to some kind of mandatory

05:17 reporting regime that might be helpful there.

05:20 And so we're, that's a relationship that continues to grow between the agencies. I would say that the Chinese government,

05:28 now that more and more businesses,

05:32 states, countries are wise to what they're up to, are making it harder to trace

05:39 transactions. And they're, you know, they're not just sort of looking at the combined efforts of us and our partners and just saying never mind.

05:46 They're doubling down and trying to figure out how to be more creative to try to hide the

05:52 hand of the Chinese government in some transactions. So we are having to work that much harder

05:58 with partners to try to be, to sleuth out

06:02 the involvement of some state nexus. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator Fischer.

Deb Fischer Grills FBI Chief Wray On Chinese Espionage Of 'Critical Civilian Infrastructure'

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