‘Aggressive’ China cyberattacks are the ‘defining threat’ of our time, top U.S. cyber official says

Published

2 years ago

June 13, 2023

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Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, testifies before a House Homeland Security Subcommittee, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., April 28, 2022.

Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

China’s cyber-espionage and sabotage capacities are an “epoch-defining threat,” the top U.S. cybersecurity official said, warning that in the event of open warfare “aggressive cyber operations” would threaten critical U.S. transportation infrastructure “to induce societal panic.”

“I think this is the real threat that we need to be prepared for,” Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said at an appearance Monday at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. Easterly was responding to a question about the recently disclosed Chinese infiltration of U.S. military and private sector infrastructure.

The attacking group was dubbed “Volt Typhoon” by Microsoft and was overtly linked to the Chinese government’s cyber-offensive capacities. Easterly warned that in the event of open conflict between the U.S. and China, Americans should expect that similar hacking groups would target pipelines and railways. “It’s going to be very, very difficult for us to prevent disruptions from happening,” Easterly said.

“We, as an American people, need to understand not just cyber resilience but the imperative of operational resilience and the importance of societal resilience,” the CISA director said.

The blunt warning comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions. Corporate executives have far less insight into potential Chinese partners or customers than they did even a year ago. Fending off cyber threats from China and Asia has become a top priority for the U.S. government, which has begun to describe in clearer and blunter terms the links between the Chinese government and myriad hacking groups.

Chinese cyber infiltration and espionage have been an ongoing concern for American companies. Intellectual property theft has been used by Chinese companies to reach parity with American competitors.

But the clear and present danger underlined by Easterly suggests that the U.S. government has become increasingly willing to highlight the risks beyond espionage. A disruption of critical pipelines, communications infrastructure, or transportation services could cripple the U.S. economy in the case of conflict.

The Colonial Pipeline cyber intrusion, for example, disrupted airlines and caused gas shortages across the East Coast. That attack by Russian hackers initially cost the company $5 million.

“I think that this is the most important issue for anyone who runs or operates critical infrastructure is that we need to be prepared for disruptive attacks,” Easterly said. “Now, I hope that doesn’t happen.”

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

3 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: