Intel officials say 5G is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the threat China poses to national security, American intellectual property and consumer data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the United States works toward 5G capabilities, both the intelligence community and elected officials have raised concerns about Huawei, a Chinese company at the forefront of 5G technology. Due to the close relationship between the company and the Chinese government, some worry that the presence of their technology in U.S. infrastructure could give China access to American data or worse, the ability to disrupt American telecommunications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we look at Huawei and 5G … we\u2019re really talking about access to the data and the integrity of communication systems especially in times of crisis,\u201d said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice. \u201cWhat would be the ability of the Chinese government to affect our telecommunications infrastructure if we did get into a conflict with China at some point?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demers remarks were delivered at the Defense One Tech Summit June 27, where he and other intelligence officials warned of the threat China poses through the next-gen wireless technology supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the kind of backdoor worries that you have; it\u2019s also the worry that they could compel information crossing those networks to be provided to a foreign government, and I think that is a huge privacy, as well as national security question,\u201d said Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon, who called China America\u2019s greatest geopolitical threat right now due to its mass and ambition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t understand as a society … the mindset of our adversaries and their ability to not only target the 5G capabilities, the software updates, the ability to disrupt the data, stop the data flow, manipulate the data flow. All of those capabilities are real and exacerbated by 1,000 times in the 5G network,\u201d said William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. \u201cThe ability to move data at speeds we can\u2019t contemplate with software updates at speeds we can\u2019t contemplate, we can\u2019t handle it now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spurred by these concerns, the Trump administration has taken action. In May the administration put Huawei and other companies on a blacklist, effectively barring American companies from doing business with them. The White House has since relaxed those restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as big of an issue as Huawei is purported to be, Evanina said it\u2019s just a symptom of a bigger issue: China\u2019s ongoing effort to steal American intellectual property to further their own authoritative security state and intelligence efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Chinese government, led by Xi Jinping, has been able to strategically look at how to steal that and how to use data that we want as consumers for military use, for economic achievement and to be able to do the semiconductor business, the nanotechnology \u2014 anything global tech \u2014 and take over that market,\u201d said Evanina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demers added that the integrated approach taken by China allows them to target American companies, universities and research institutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have the Ministry of State Security intelligence officers who are being tasked by a Chinese research institute that\u2019s working with the Chinese commercial airplane manufacturer in an iterative process to take technology. The manufacturing guys are saying, \u2018Well, we need X, Y and Z to develop this,\u2019 and the research people say, \u2018Well, we have Z, but we still need X and Y,\u2019 and then the intelligence officer is going out and getting X and Y,\u201d said Demers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNinety percent of our espionage cases that [are] the theft of intellectual property or state secrets on behalf of the state itself involve China,\u201d said Demers. \u201cWhat you see when you look at those cases is a very well-organized, well-resourced, top-down effort [by the Chinese] intelligence services to steal intellectual property and using the same tools and techniques that they would use have used for years against government secrets, trying to get company secrets in order to develop their domestic capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Demers, China is targeting intellectual property across a wide diversity of areas, from artificial intelligence to high-speed rail to agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you want to know where they\u2019re looking, look at the main China 2025 plan. If your company has technology that falls into any of those areas of advanced technology … then you have a risk,\u201d said Demers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the theft of traditional IP, Demers said he is increasingly focused on China\u2019s acquisition of large data sets, which the government can use in advancing their security state and developing AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re developing AI here in the US, we have to find data sharing agreements to test a lot of these algorithms. The People\u2019s Republic of China does not have to do that because they have petabytes upon petabytes upon petabytes of stolen data … that they can use,\u201d said Evanina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One way the intelligence community is working to fight this is by meeting with groups of CEOs from American companies to explain the threat China poses to their IP. So far they\u2019ve been able to meet with 500 CEOs, together with intelligence leaders in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\t