Warning that Chinese cyberattack 'will be 100 times worse' than AT&T outage
Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio has warned on social media that the widespread AT&T outage affecting tens of thousands of Americans would in comparison to what a potential catastrophe a China cyberattack would cause.
"I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage," the Florida Republican began his speculation on X on Thursday.
"But I do know it will be 100 times worse when China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a Taiwan invasion.
"And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank."
Trump nominated FBI director Christopher Wray has stressed that China's cyberattacks against the U.S. and its allies are reaching a "fever pitch."
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Politicians are growing concerned over cyber attacks (Getty Images)"You might find your companies harassed and hacked, targeted by a web of corporate CCP proxies. You might also find PRC [People’s Republic of China] hackers lurking in your power stations, your phone companies and other infrastructure, poised to take them down when they decide you stepped too far out of line, and that hurting your civilian population suits the CCP."
"China-sponsored hackers pre-positioned for potential cyberattacks against U.S. oil and natural gas companies way back in 2011, but these days, it’s reached something closer to a fever pitch," he continued.
Senator Marco Rubio made the warning (Jemal Countess/UPI/REX/Shutterstock)"What we’re seeing now is China’s increasing build-out of offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure, poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right."
The nation was left disconnected when tens of thousands of AT&T customers reported outages on Thursday morning for their home phone, internet and mobile phone services, according to website Downdetector.
Hacks are becoming increasingly worrying (Getty Images)The extent of the outages became clear at around 3:30 a.m. ET, according to a graph shown on the outage tracking website. 54% of users reported issues with cell service and more than a third of customers reported having no signal at all. 8% of users say their mobile internet is down.
"Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning," AT&T told FOX Business in a statement as the chaos unfolded. "We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored."
By 9:30am ET, 74,000 AT&T users reported outages.
Concern over Chinese attacks and espionage has grown exponentially in recent years. The Biden administration has shared about a national security threat posed by cranes at U.S. ports, with 200 cranes made in China that could be a hacking risk.
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