The lawmakers point to four years of ‘brazen attacks’ by China’s cyber proxies that target government institutions and citizens with ’near impunity.’
A group of senators, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), has urged President Donald Trump to bolster U.S. cyber defenses in response to China’s persistent onslaught.
In a March 11 letter co-signed by 11 colleagues, Capito warned that these cyber intrusions have gone unpunished, despite China-nexus groups targeting state institutions.
The letter follows reports by two cybersecurity companies, Mandiant and CrowdStrike—both of which have documented an increasing rate of cyberattacks on U.S.-based entities.
Capito’s letter pointed to four years of “brazen” incursions by China’s cyber proxies that target government institutions and citizens with “near impunity.”
Four years ago, Hafnium—a Chinese state-sponsored group known as Silk Typhoon—was a significant player in the cyber landscape. In 2021, it was observed exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities and was linked to multiple breaches of on-premises exchange servers.
Capito’s letter also referenced the hacking of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the division responsible for economic sanctions, on Dec. 8, 2024, in which documents were stolen from workstations. The United States responded with sanctions.
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“All of these attacks were undertaken with no forceful response by the Biden Administration,” Capito wrote, dismissing a report at the time that claimed the administration had “quietly hit back.”
On Jan. 16, Biden signed Executive Order 14144, calling for “more rigorous third-party risk management.”
Capito’s letter, however, asserted that the former president “failed to respond to some of the worst cyber attacks in our nation’s history.”
“Mr. President, it is clear that deterrence must be restored in the cyber domain,” Capito wrote.
She called on Trump to take “decisive action” by “imposing higher costs on adversaries” and upgrading America’s defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.
National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Cyber Command Director General Timothy Haugh were copied in on the missive.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.
The senators’ call to action follows a similar effort by a group of 21 attorneys general, led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen, who urged Congress to pass the Feb. 6 No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act.
The letter, dated March 6 and addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), argued that China’s answer to ChatGPT is “another tool for Chinese spies to attack America’s national security.”
The group emphasized that swift passage of the legislation would bode well for the United States.
In a bipartisan move on March 3, Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) co-signed a letter directed at 47 U.S. governors, urging them to ban DeepSeek from government devices. Virginia, Texas, and New York have already banned the software from government devices.
“The CCP has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spread harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” the letter stated.
The lawmakers explained that the chatbot was connected to China Mobile, which is owned by the Chinese regime.
This rallying of effort follows two recent cybersecurity threat reports released less than a month apart—one from CrowdStrike on Feb. 27 highlighting the use of AI in cyber intrusion and another from Mandiant on March 12, on the exploitation of end-of-life software on Juniper OS routers—both highlighting an increase in Chinese cyber intrusions in the United States and a growing use of artificial intelligence in cybercrime.
The Department of Justice also released a report on March 5, naming 12 Chinese nationals, including two public security officials, for cyber crimes committed between 2013 and 2023, one of which involved hacking The Epoch Times.
