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TARGET CHINA: Incoming CIA Director-Designate John Ratcliffe plans to bring the spy agency’s fight with China into cyberspace and other areas. “I want us to have all of the tools necessary to go on offense against our adversaries in the cyber community,” Ratcliffe said Wednesday during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Traditional spying could also see some big changes.“Ratcliffe would push for aggressive spy missions against high-level officials in China and for covert operations intended to counter Beijing’s growing influence around the world,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray calls China “the defining threat of our generation” due in part to its massive, state-funded hacking program. Wray told 60 Minutes last Sunday that China is poised to “wreak havoc” on U.S. water treatment plants, the electrical grid, natural gas pipelines, telecommunications, and other systems should war break out. China has pre-positioned malware to “lie in wait” on those systems and can inflict real-world harm whenever it chooses, he said. Ratcliffe sees more aggressive spying as a way to combat China’s hacking.
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