Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Wednesday that Beijing may be watching closely as federal workers become distracted by the Elon Musk-led DOGE entity which has gained access to several agencies’ sensitive systems and is accelerating the termination of thousands of federal employees.
Referring to Volt Typhoon, a pervasive Chinese cyberespionage group that’s been burrowing into various types of critical infrastructure across the nation for years, he said China’s hacking activity is “as severe as we have ever seen it.”
“People are people, and I wouldn’t blame anybody in this field, inside the federal government, for being distracted, for all the reasons I outlined,” he said. “But what are the Chinese thinking about where there may be gaps? Where there may be inattention? What can they do? What is Volt Typhoon 2.0 and how can they exploit this moment in time?”
Himes, who was speaking at a George Mason University National Security Institute event on Capitol Hill, said he was very worried about the Trump administration’s treatment of federal workers in national security roles. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and multiple intelligence community offices have been targeted for workforce reductions as DOGE seeks to purge purported government spending waste.
“What’s the point?” he said. “So I worry very, very much about brain drain.” Himes also referenced a recent White House executive order that targeted former CISA chief intelligence lawmaker fears china exploit changes government
