- Intrusions have been detected in Guam’s power infrastructure
- The moves have all the markers of a Volt Typhoon campaign
- However not everyone in Guam is convinced of the threat
New reports have claimed notorious Chinese hacking group Volt Typhoon is targeting the critical infrastructure of small island nation Guam, looking to disrupt and sabotage services in the region.
The findings from Bloomberg say hackers are reportedly targeting the GPA (Guam Power Authority) in particular, in order to wreak havoc.
Guam is a small island with a population under 200,00, but is also home to a large US military base. The base takes up just over a third of the island, and provides a strategically significant foothold in the region – with geographical proximity to China undoubtedly a factor in its operations and vulnerability.
Everything, everywhere, all at once
The report uncovered incredibly discreet infiltration, so much so that detection was only made through small anomalies like irregular login patterns, with Volt Typhoon the top suspect.
The GPA is the island’s only power utility, but the US Navy is its biggest customer, consuming 20% of the power it generated in 2023.
Critical infrastructure on the island is mostly run by private companies, so investigating and dealing with intrusions isn’t always straight forward.
Not everyone on the island is convinced of the threat either, with the Chief Technical Officer for around 40 of Guam’s government agencies, Frank Lujan, denying having seen any evidence of compromise, calling it the ‘illusion of Volt Typhoon’.
In early 2024, Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told congress that Chinese hackers are evolving their attacks on US infrastructure – in order to enable ‘destructive attacks’ on US citizens in the event of a major conflict.
This is ‘not theoretical’, Easterly says, and Chinese threat actors such as Volt Typhoon are building the capacity to cut off telecommunications, disrupt pipelines, pollute water facilities, and cripple transportation – all to incite ‘societal chaos’ and endanger American lives. The aim of these attacks would be to take down ‘everything, everywhere, all at once.’
China has always vehemently denied these claims, calling them baseless, and even going so far as to accuse Volt Typhoon of being a CIA asset.
This isn’t the first campaign by Volt Typhoon uncovered recently, with reports early in 2024 confirming the group had compromised the networks of US critical infrastructure and had maintained access for at least five years, in a huge cyber espionage campaign.