Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The US government has revealed a Chinese hacking campaign targeting critical infrastructure on the island of Guam Bloomberg. Guam is a major US military base and a foothold on one of the remote Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. China’s operation is said to be called Volt Typhoon and is intended to disrupt military and civilian operations in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. The alleged campaign focuses on hacking operational systems to prepare for potential sabotage operations, creating widespread vulnerabilities on Guam.
Volt Typhoon infiltrates systems by imitating legitimate users, and unlike data leak attacks, this program seeks to control critical infrastructure such as water systems, power grids, and communications networks. Volt Typhoon is said to operate so conservatively that detection relies on identifying anomalies, such as irregular logging patterns. That’s where it was discovered, as the Guam Power Authority (GPA), the island’s sole electricity provider, became a point of interest when US investigators contacted its cybersecurity chief – Melvin Quick – to assess unusual grid activity in 2022.
The GPA provides about 20% of its energy to the US Navy, so it is a critical military node for both civilian and military operations and of course a focal point of investigation. Guam is geographically reasonably close to China, and the role it plays in hosting major US military bases in the region – in close proximity to Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines – amplifies its strategic importance. This creates a potential vulnerability for cyber attacks to cripple facilities and disrupt US military operations in the Pacific.
The source’s report says some big-name victims, such as Docomo Pacific, a subsidiary of Japanese company NTT Docomo, continue to recover from the breaches. Microsoft Researchers first discovered traces of the Typhoon Volt in 2021 while investigating the cyberattack on the Port of Houston. Further investigations revealed multiple hacks, including federal networks previously thought to be secure.
Since then, federal agencies, such as the FBI, NSA, and Coast Guard, have deployed teams to Guam, installing surveillance systems across power grids, ports, and communications networks. Despite these efforts, the decentralized nature of Guam’s infrastructure, which is largely managed by private entities, complicates coordinated defenses. This makes things difficult, as does local resistance and lack of confidence in a comprehensive postponement protection Sizes.
In one example of mistrust, the GPA rejected offers from… GoogleOwned network monitoring company Mandiant, citing concerns about external censorship. Moreover, rival telecom companies on Guam are wary of publicizing their vulnerabilities, so they resisted cooperating during a 2024 congressional visit, according to a Bloomberg report.
