US hunts Chinese malware that could disrupt military operations

Chinese officials have repeatedly denied conducting cyberoperations against the US

The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to U.S. military, intelligence and national security officials.

The discovery of the malware has raised fears that Chinese hackers, probably working for the People’s Liberation Army, have inserted code designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event of a conflict, including if Beijing moves against Taiwan in coming years.

The malware, one congressional official said, was essentially “a ticking time bomb” that could give China the power to interrupt or slow U.S. military deployments or resupply operations by cutting off power, water and communications to military bases. But its impact could be far broader, because that same infrastructure often supplies the houses and businesses of ordinary Americans.

The first public hints of the malware campaign began to emerge in late May, when Microsoft said it had detected mysterious computer code in telecommunications systems in Guam, the Pacific island with a vast American air base, and elsewhere in the United States.

More than a dozen U.S. officials and industry experts said that the Chinese effort predated the May report by at least a year, and that the U.S. government’s effort to hunt down the code has been underway for some time. They say the Chinese effort appears more widespread than they had initially realized. But officials acknowledge that they do not know the full extent of the code’s presence in networks in the United States and at American facilities abroad.

The discovery of the malware has touched off a series of Situation Room meetings in recent months. Biden administration officials have begun to brief members of Congress, state governors and utility companies about the findings, and confirmed some conclusions about the operation.

There is a debate inside the administration over whether the goal of the operation is primarily aimed at disrupting the military, or at civilian life more broadly in the event of a conflict. But officials say that the initial searches for the code have focused first on areas with a high concentration of U.S. military bases.

The discovery of the code, one of President Joe Biden’s most senior advisers said, “raises the question of what, exactly, they are preparing for — or whether this is signaling.”

Chinese officials have repeatedly denied conducting cyberoperations against the United States.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes

c.2023 The New York Times Company