Fears that the nationwide cellular service outage on Thursday was caused by a cyberattack were put to bed early in the evening when AT&T announced that a network upgrade caused the problem.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) warned his followers on X that a Chinese attack would be much worse.
“I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage,” Rubio posted. “But I do know it will be 100 times worse when [China] launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a [Taiwan] invasion.
“And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank.”
A recent report shows that China is employing private companies alongside state actors to devise ways to use technology for everything from spying to malware. A document dump from Chinese company I-Soon paints an alarming picture of the capabilities of hackers and the complexities security companies face in defending against the threat.
Chinese-sponsored hackers have become more sophisticated in recent years. In 2023, Microsoft discovered that malware had been installed on networks on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory and an important military facility in case of Chinese attacks on Taiwan, as reported by The Dallas Express. While the malware was initially believed to only impact telecommunications, it was later revealed that it could disrupt electricity, water, and fuel operations on the South Pacific Island. Similar malware has been found at other military installations.
Numerous other small-scale but critical hacks have impacted Texas residents in recent years, with the Russian-backed ransomware attack on the Houston-based Colonial Pipeline dominating headlines in May 2021. That attack halted Colonial’s gasoline and jet fuel distribution to the eastern seaboard. Colonial ended up paying a massive ransom to restore services.
John Miri, president of the Electric Grid Cybersecurity Alliance, warned on Fox 4 KDFW last year that Texas, which has several military installations, is susceptible to the same malware used in Guam initiated by the Chinese hacking group Volt Typhoon.
“This is a very sophisticated attack. This is not your…this is way beyond even what took down Colonial Pipeline, which disrupted the United States very significantly with its gas supplies, the very, very targeted attack,” Miri said. “And then once the attackers get in, they look just like normal, normal activity.”
It is unclear how many — if any — of the 19 military bases in Texas were infected with the Volt Typhoon malware, but numerous regions with clusters of military bases nationwide were targeted.
“I cannot emphasize enough how much the constant barrage of malware and cyberattack attempts originating from China and America’s other global adversaries impacts the small businesses we serve in Central Texas and beyond, wrote Eduardo Contreras, the founder and CEO of Austin-based ALCON DTS, a managed IT and cybersecurity services firm, wrote in an opinion piece for The Dallas Express.
Local government entities, restaurants, airports, and hospitals in Texas have experienced cyber attacks in recent years. The Biden administration has taken a series of executive actions aimed at stopping the threats before the hackers can cripple the U.S., including an order issued on February 21 to beef up security at coastal ports vital for shipping.
