The FBI has successfully thwarted the hacking endeavors of a Chinese state-backed collective aimed at crucial public infrastructure such as the power grid and pipelines, according to statements from the bureau.

During testimony to lawmakers, the FBI's director revealed that they had undertaken an operation to dismantle the activities of the "Volt Typhoon" group.

Christopher Wray alleged that this group had infiltrated numerous older office routers to gain access to data about US assets.

As of now, the Chinese government has not issued a response to these allegations. Despite this, it has previously refuted claims of engaging in state-supported cyber warfare against other nations.

Moreover, China has accused the US of being "the world's biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief."

During a hearing with a US congressional committee, Mr. Wray highlighted that China was actively laying the groundwork to incapacitate crucial US infrastructure systems in the event of hostilities.

The activities of the "Volt Typhoon" group were initially exposed in the US last May when Microsoft cautioned about the group's targeting of various public assets, including government email accounts.

According to the FBI, the group aimed at a wide array of critical infrastructure across the nation, encompassing water treatment facilities, transportation systems, oil and gas pipelines, as well as telecommunication networks.

Mr. Wray stated that the Chinese state-backed group successfully planted malware and gained control over hundreds of antiquated routers connected to these infrastructure assets.

He emphasized that the Volt Typhoon malware facilitated China in concealing pre-operational reconnaissance and network exploitation efforts against critical infrastructure.

This revelation suggests that the hackers were gearing up to unleash chaos and inflict tangible harm on American citizens and communities.

"If and when China decides the time has come to strike, they're not focused just on political or military targets," he added.

Cyber security experts in the US have previously warned that China is targeting infrastructure to lay the potential groundwork for the disruption of communications in the event of a conflict.

At Wednesday's hearing of the Select Committee on Competition Between the US and China, the chairman said this was "the cyberspace equivalent of placing bombs on American bridges and power plants."

The committee has been criticized by Beijing, which denies all allegations of cybercrime. The Chinese government has called on the committee to "discard their ideological bias and zero-sum Cold War mentality."

But Mr. Wray outlined Beijing's resources dedicated to cyber warfare in detail and said China's hacking program was bigger "than every other major nation combined."

He also said the FBI's cyber agents were outnumbered by their Chinese counterparts by 50 to 1.

Noted