This week at the International Conference on Cyber Security, Assistant Director Brett Leatherman spoke about the FBI’s efforts to counter the Salt, Volt, Flax, and other “Typhoon” cyber threats, according to a post by the FBI’s Cyber Division on LinkedIn. The Chinese Communist Party uses these cyber operations to collect sensitive data in peacetime and potentially to inflict damage during a conflict—ultimately in the hopes of reshaping the global balance of power.
AD Leatherman recounted some of the FBI’s successes, such as initiating the takedown of a massive botnet, numbering some 200,000 infected devices, operated by CCP-sponsored hackers known as Flax Typhoon.
However, the FBI can’t establish cyber deterrence on its own, Leatherman said. The Chinese government leverages a vast ecosystem of private-sector firms to find and exploit cyber vulnerabilities. Facing such a threat, partnerships with industry are the best way to deny the adversary easy gains and raise the cost of every attack.
