China Threat an ‘Unparalleled Priority’ for US Intelligence Community: Spy Chiefs
The Chinese regime is on its way to becoming a “near-peer competitor” for the United States and is the “unparalleled priority” for the country’s intelligence community, the U.S. director of national intelligence (DNI) said on April 14.
“China increasingly is a near-peer competitor, challenging the United States in multiple areas while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favor the authoritarian Chinese system,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing in her first public testimony since being confirmed in January.
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Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, testifies Wednesday about worldwide threats during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Graeme Jennings/Pool/AP
The top U.S. intelligence officials on Wednesday provided their assessment of worldwide threats affecting U.S. interests, focusing on cybersecurity and military concerns posed by Beijing and Moscow, but also the threat of both domestic and international terrorism.
It was the first such assessment formally presented at a hearing to Congress in two years due to tensions between former President Donald Trump and the nation s intelligence community.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, in her opening statement before lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, echoed language in the intelligence community s annual threat assessment, officially released Tuesday. She described China as a near-peer comp
By Justin Katz
Senate lawmakers on Wednesday continued to press Army Gen. Paul Nakasone for solutions that might prevent another massive cybersecurity intrusion into federal networks, but the director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command insisted the answer cannot be boiled down to a single authority or investment.
“Senator, I’m not seeking legal authorities either for NSA or for U.S. Cyber Command,” Nakasone told Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) during a hearing with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Nakasone was testifying along with several other intelligence agency chiefs about the IC’s new worldwide threat assessment report, which, among other things, notes that all of the United States’ primary adversaries are ramping up their activities and capabilities in cyberspace.
Senators Push for Changes in Wake of SolarWinds Attack
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Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The SolarWinds supply chain attack that led to follow-on attacks on nine government agencies and 100 companies points to the need for a federal law requiring prompt breach notification, several senators said at a Wednesday hearing.
At the hearing, members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence heard from the leaders of the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about what these agencies are doing to address the fallout from the SolarWinds attack.