Christopher Wray is scared.
He fears that Chinese hackers have long since penetrated deep into the US infrastructure and can paralyze communications networks, water treatment or energy supplies with the push of a button.
Anytime, if and when it suits China.
Christopher Wray is the head of the FBI.
And that's why we should at least heed the warning he gave to the US Congress about a month ago.
Because China is no longer just interested in cheaply copying foreign technologies or products.
The data leak at the hacker company I-Soon shows how large-scale the People's Republic thinks about cyber espionage.
“From our perspective here in Beijing, this is a very significant publication,” says SPIEGEL correspondent Christoph Giesen in the podcast.
"When looking through the material, it quickly became clear to us that we had a unique insight into the espionage engine room of the Chinese services."
Marcel Rosenbach, who has been reporting on offensive cyber activities for SPIEGEL for a long time, adds: “This outsourcing, which we are now seeing in this granularity;
the fact that this company is currently applying for contracts - these are new insights into how Chinese foreign espionage works that we didn't have before.
And that’s why this leak is significant from our point of view.”
Included in the leaked data set: Clients from various Chinese regional administrations.
Price lists for digital infiltration processes from obtaining information from ministries of foreign countries to disinformation campaigns via communication networks like X, which used to be Twitter.
And also the wishes of customers who, for example, were interested in information from all ministries in Great Britain.
There is also the realization that private Chinese companies obviously just proactively hack everything that seems interesting to customers and then offer it.
Because there is now great competitive pressure among government contractors.
And that the hackers actually have the tools to specifically influence other states.
»This manipulation of data, for example, you go into the critical infrastructure and shut down power plants at the push of a button, the traffic light system no longer works in certain cities and the cell phone network collapses.
These are the fears that of course now exist in many Western countries," says Christoph Giesen.
How does China's espionage system work in detail?
Why do individual provinces specialize in espionage in certain countries?
And to what extent do the leaked chat logs from I-Soon give hope?
Christoph Giesen and Marcel Rosenbach talk about this in this episode of the SPIEGEL foreign podcast Eight Billion.
Listen to this episode here:
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