FBI says Chinese hackers are inside US infrastructure to cause ‘devastating blow’

State-sponsored hackers have conducted widespread cyberattacks on critical American infrastructure in recent years, with the goal of giving China the ability to cause “a devastating blow” against the US, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The fact is, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] targeting of our critical infrastructure is both broad and unrelenting,” he told a security conference in Nashville on Thursday, describing China’s hacking programme as growing in strength.

“It’s using that mass, those numbers, to give itself the ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing,” he added.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with additional information.