China Is Strapping ‘Digital Bombs’ to Civilian Infrastructure—Is the US Ready?

中国正在向民用基础设施安装“数字炸弹”——美国准备好了吗？

Earlier this year, insurance executives gathered in a Times Square conference room to play out a scenario: A Chinese cyberattack knocks out 5,000 US water utilities at once. If you think that’s a far-fetched scenario, think again. WIRED’s Andy Greenberg got rare access to the closed-door war game and walked away with some disturbing conclusions. This week, Brian Barrett sits down to talk with Andy about Volt Typhoon, the Chinese state-sponsored hacking group that’s spent the past three years pre-positioning itself inside American infrastructure. 今年早些时候，保险业高管们聚集在时代广场的一间会议室里，模拟了一个场景：一场中国发起的网络攻击同时瘫痪了美国 5000 家供水设施。如果你认为这太离谱，那你就错了。《连线》（WIRED）杂志的安迪·格林伯格（Andy Greenberg）获得了罕见的准入机会，得以旁观这场闭门战争游戏，并得出了一些令人不安的结论。本周，布莱恩·巴雷特（Brian Barrett）与安迪坐下来探讨了“伏特台风”（Volt Typhoon），这是一个由中国政府支持的黑客组织，过去三年里，该组织一直潜伏在美国基础设施内部进行预置。

Brian Barrett: This is WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Brian Barrett, executive editor. We’re on a short break from our usual roundtable for the rest of August. Everybody needs some time off sometimes. But we prepared two special conversations for you. This week, we’re diving into something alarming that hasn’t happened yet, but could. Earlier this year, about 30 insurance executives stepped into a conference room high above Times Square in Manhattan to simulate what would happen if a group of hackers from China attacked the US water supply. 布莱恩·巴雷特：这里是《连线》杂志的《恐怖谷》（Uncanny Valley）播客。我是执行编辑布莱恩·巴雷特。八月余下的时间里，我们的常规圆桌讨论将暂停休息。每个人都需要休息。但我们为您准备了两场特别对话。本周，我们将深入探讨一件尚未发生但极有可能发生的令人担忧的事情。今年早些时候，约 30 名保险业高管走进曼哈顿时代广场上方的一间会议室，模拟如果来自中国的黑客组织攻击美国供水系统会发生什么。

Specifically, the idea was to simulate a Chinese cyberattack that would knock out 5,000 water utilities in the US all at once and to do it under a countdown clock. WIRED senior correspondent Andy Greenberg got a rare invite to this closed-door war game; call it Dungeons & Dragons for a national security nightmare. It was designed by a former cybersecurity strategist to test what would happen if and when hackers linked to an infamous Chinese operation called Volt Typhoon finally decide to follow through on groundwork that they’ve been laying for three years. 具体来说，这次模拟旨在测试一场中国网络攻击如何能在倒计时钟的压力下，同时瘫痪美国 5000 家供水设施。《连线》资深记者安迪·格林伯格获得了这场闭门战争游戏的罕见邀请；这简直就是国家安全噩梦版的《龙与地下城》。该游戏由一名前网络安全战略家设计，旨在测试如果与臭名昭著的中国“伏特台风”行动相关的黑客决定实施他们三年来一直铺垫的计划，将会发生什么。

Andy Greenberg: Well, Volt Typhoon is a hacker group that I think represents some of the worst nightmares of the cybersecurity community and the US government, those who have to plan for catastrophic national security scenarios. This is a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group that does not, like most Chinese state hackers, focus on espionage, but rather has been, it appears, for the last three years, planting malware inside of US critical infrastructure, pre-positioning, as people put it, sort of laying the groundwork for the ability to disrupt these systems, to turn off the power, to cause blackouts, to disrupt telecommunications, and potentially to affect the water supply. 安迪·格林伯格：“伏特台风”是一个黑客组织，我认为它代表了网络安全界和美国政府——那些必须为灾难性国家安全场景做规划的人——最糟糕的噩梦。这是一个由中国政府支持的黑客组织，与大多数中国国家背景的黑客不同，它并不专注于间谍活动，而是似乎在过去三年里一直将恶意软件植入美国关键基础设施中。正如人们所说，他们在进行“预置”，即为破坏这些系统、切断电力、造成停电、干扰电信以及潜在地影响供水系统奠定基础。

The fact is that China really is breaking into US civilian critical infrastructure. And I don’t want to sound overdramatic here, but laying what Rob Joyce, the former NSA director of cybersecurity, describes as digital bombs strapped to our infrastructure. 事实是，中国确实正在入侵美国的民用关键基础设施。我不想听起来过于夸张，但正如前美国国家安全局（NSA）网络安全主管罗伯·乔伊斯（Rob Joyce）所描述的那样，这就像是在我们的基础设施上捆绑了“数字炸弹”。

Brian Barrett: It’s a theory that’s at the heart of this war game exercise that you went to. The theory is, what if they do pull the trigger on this? How do people react? Do you mind setting the scene, even just how you got there in the first place? Because this is not the kind of thing that people are normally invited to. You normally don’t get a look into something like this. So how’d you get invited? Who’s there? 布莱恩·巴雷特：这正是你参加的那场战争游戏演习的核心理论。该理论是：如果他们真的扣动了扳机，会怎样？人们会如何反应？你介意描述一下现场情况吗，甚至包括你是如何获得机会参加的？因为这通常不是人们会被邀请参加的事情。你通常无法窥见此类活动。那么你是如何被邀请的？现场都有谁？