How Has China Invaded the U.S. Power Grid? --2009-2023

How Has China Invaded the U.S. Power Grid? --2009-2023

Despite its ostensible tranquility, the U.S. power grid has been a battleground of creeping foreign shadows for more than a decade. 2009, the Wall Street Journal revealed that suspicious intrusions into the U.S. power grid--apparently related to China and Russia--had left a trail of code intended to sabotage the future. was the fact that hackers had left a trail of code intended for future sabotage.

In 2012, an attack was reported targeting a power company in the Rayleigh, North Carolina area. Here, too, cyber actors believed to be of Chinese origin had been searching inside the network, starting with phishing emails. Their aim was not explicitly to disrupt, but to monitor and secure an entry point.

In late 2020, a widespread Russian-led attack via SolarWinds software shook the world, but it was later revealed that Chinese-origin hackers were also quietly at work behind the scenes.

In 2023, the NSA and FBI announced the existence of a Chinese infiltration operation called "Bolt Typhoon. This was a typical "living off the land" (LotL) tactic that did not use specific malware, but rather exploited legitimate Windows tools to infiltrate, with a view to inducing disruption in the event of an emergency by infiltrating deep into infrastructure networks such as power, communications, and water systems.

These examples are not blitzkrieg warfare with destruction. Rather, they present us with an invisible horizon of war that fosters long-term tension and distrust. The sparks that have been building up behind the circuits of silence may soon bring about an unforeseen dark turn.