United States Navy guided missile submarine.
United States Navy | AP
The U.S. Navy was affected by a Chinese state-sponsored hack revealed by Microsoft earlier this week, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan on Thursday.
Del Toro said the US Navy was “affected” by the cyberattacks, adding that “it’s no surprise that China has been behaving this fashion, not only for the past few years, but for a long time.”
He declined to offer further details about the intrusion, but suggested that the navy has struggled with such cyberattacks for years.
Microsoft issued a warning on Wednesday together with leading intelligence agencies and the U.S. Cybersecurity Agency.
The vulnerability, which was exploited by a gaggle codenamed “Volt Typhoon”, affects critical cyber infrastructure across multiple industries, Microsoft said Wednesday. Microsoft has noted that Chinese hackers have targeted communications and maritime sectors on Guam, home to a key US military base.
Microsoft noted that the hacking group focused on surveillance moderately than disruption. But top intelligence officials and investigators expressed concern that Guam was being targeted, saying The Recent York Times that the island’s territory can be crucial to repel China’s long-feared invasion of Taiwan.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the state-controlled press dismissed the findings of Microsoft and the intelligence community as “disinformation.”
Earlier on Thursday, a State Department spokesman said each the government and the public must remain vigilant. “We’ll proceed to work with our allies and partners to resolve this critical issue,” spokesman Matthew Miller said at the briefing.