Tag Archives: cyber espionage

Cars as a National Security Risk: Tesla v. BYD

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In February 2024, President Biden ordered the Commerce Department to open an investigation into foreign-made software in cars, citing Chinese technology as a potential national-security risk. Chinese efforts to dominate the global auto industry posed clear security risks to the U.S. “Connected vehicles from China could collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” Biden said in a statement. “These vehicles could be remotely accessed or disabled.”

The Biden administration has been trying to reduce the U.S. auto industry’s reliance on China, including using tax credits to boost electric-vehicle sales and pushing automakers away from Chinese suppliers. China became the world’s biggest auto exporter, shipping an estimated 5.26 million domestically made vehicles overseas, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Part of that growth came in the electric-vehicle market, where the country sold more than one million China-made EVs overseas.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has said Chinese car companies have already had much success outside of China and that they are now the “most competitive” globally.  “If there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world,” Musk said during Tesla’s earnings call in January 2024.

The Chinese government has also raised national-security concerns about Western-designed cars sold to its own citizens, saying they could be used for gathering data and information. In 2021, China restricted the use of Tesla vehicles by military staff and employees of key state-owned companies, saying the car’s cameras record images constantly and obtain data, including when, how and where the vehicles are used.

Excerpts from Gareth Vipers, Chinese Automakers Pose U.S. National-Security Threat, Biden Says, WSJ, Feb. 29, 2024

Sinophobia or Rational Paranoia: the Cranes

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The Biden administration plans to invest billions in 2024 in the domestic manufacturing of cargo cranes, seeking to counter fears that the prevalent use of China-built cranes with advanced software at many U.S. ports poses a potential national-security risk. The move is part of a set of actions taken by the administration that is intended to improve maritime cybersecurity….Administration officials said more than $20 billion would be invested in port security, including domestic cargo-crane production, over the next five years. The money, tapped from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021, would support a U.S. subsidiary of  Mitsui, a Japanese company, to produce the cranes, which officials said would be the first time in 30 years that they would be built domestically.

Cranes at some ports used by the U.S. military were flagged as surveillance threats. Officials also raised the concern that the software on the cranes could be manipulated by China to impede American shipping or, worse, temporarily disrupt the operation of the crane.  “By design these cranes may be controlled, serviced and programmed from remote locations,” said Rear Adm. John Vann, who leads the Coast Guard cyber command, during a press briefing….

The U.S. military has been concerned about the cranes for years and has made efforts to skirt ports with the China-made cranes as best as possible, according to the senior U.S. military commander who oversees the military’s logistics operations.The Chinese can track the origin, destination and other data of the U.S. military’s containerized materiel to determine exactly where the military is shipping it, Cranes made by China-based ZPMC contain sensors that can register and track the origin and destination of containers…

China’s military doctrine gives priority to targeting “systems that move enemy troops,” including harbors and airports, Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, said during congressional testimony in February 2023…“Increasingly, the Chinese are not merely seeking access to our networks; they are pre-emptively positioning to compromise and control them,” Singleton said in his testimony. “As a result, China is poised to impede the mobilization of American military forces, foment a state of disarray, and redirect national attention and resources in both war and short-of-war scenarios.”

Excerpts from Dustin Volz, U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports, WSJ, Feb. 21, 2024