The United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight of Technology is set to hold a hearing on Tuesday (November 19) to question witnesses about cyberattacks by the Chinese Communist Party.
Chaired by Senator Richard Blumenthal, the hearing will examine “Chinese hacker activities and the threats they pose to our democracy, national security, and economy.”
Expected attendees at the hearing include Adam Meyers, Senior Vice President of CrowdStrike, David Stehlin, CEO of the Telecommunications Industry Association, Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of Strategy Risks, and Sam Bresnick, a researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Last week, the U.S. government stated that Chinese authorities used hackers to infiltrate an undisclosed number of telecommunications companies and stole surveillance data intended for U.S. law enforcement agencies.
According to a joint statement from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), hackers breached the networks of “multiple telecommunications companies” and stole call records of U.S. customers, as well as communication data of “a few key government or political figures.”
The statement confirmed previous reports in the media that Chinese hackers gained access to the monitoring systems used by law enforcement to monitor U.S. telecommunications through an open backdoor.
Earlier reports indicated that during the 2024 U.S. election, Chinese hackers targeted then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, along with other high-ranking political figures, raising concerns about the security of the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure.
Last month, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers requested responses from AT&T and Verizon Communications about the hacking of U.S. broadband providers’ networks.
Additionally, Senator Blumenthal’s office stated that he plans to raise concerns about potential conflicts of interest between Elon Musk and China, as Musk has been increasingly involved in government affairs.
Tesla founder Musk was a major supporter of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him as a co-director of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, responsible for regulatory streamlining, cost savings, and reorganization of federal agencies.
Reports indicate that Musk visited mainland China in April this year and suggested installing Tesla’s advanced driver-assist system in autonomous taxis in China to test the system.
(This article was referenced from Reuters.)