US moves against cybersecurity ‘risk’ posed by China-made port infrastructure

US President Joe Biden and the American coastguard are announcing a series of actions on Wednesday to guard against China’s presence in the country’s port infrastructure.
Biden will sign an executive order to push maritime vessels and facilities to shore up their cybersecurity and mandate the reporting of cyber incidents, according to deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Neuberger said the administration will also be investing more than US$20 billion into US port infrastructure over the next five years, including an effort to onshore American crane manufacturing.

Rear Admiral Jay Vann, commander of the United States Coast Guard Cyber Command, told the same briefing that the service will impose cybersecurity requirements on the owners and operators of Chinese-manufactured cranes in the US.

The coastguard – the sole branch of the US military housed under the Department of Homeland Security – will release a plan to establish baseline cybersecurity requirements for the entire marine transport system, he said.

US officials have been raising alarms that Beijing could remotely operate Chinese-manufactured cranes to disrupt the flow of goods. They are also concerned that data collected from the cranes could reveal information about US military shipments.

Last year, lawmakers wrote several letters to the Homeland Security secretary highlighting the national security risks.

In a letter co-signed by the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, legislators said cranes made by state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) made up the vast majority of “ship-to-shore” cranes in the US.

Security risks posed by ZPMC include “cyberattacks, espionage, and supply chain vulnerabilities due to the shared software and interconnectivity among ZPMC cranes operating at our nation’s ports,” the letter said.

Vann told the press briefing that Chinese-manufactured ship-to-shore cranes make up the largest share of the global market and account for nearly 80 per cent of cranes at US ports.

He said the coastguard has already assessed the cybersecurity of 92 Chinese-made cranes out of the “over 200” installed at American ports.

China’s embassy in Washington has called the US concerns about cranes a “paranoia-driven” attempt to impede bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Beijing is not the only driver of Wednesday’s initiatives. Neuberger said that criminal cyber activity was another motivator behind the administration’s efforts.

Biden’s executive order will broadly expand the coastguard’s authorities to respond to cyber threats, including by giving it control over the movement of vessels that present a known or suspected cyber threat.

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US moves against cybersecurity ‘risk’ posed by China-made port infrastructure

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