January 1, Pentagon official resigns, calls US’s cybersecurity ‘kindergarten level’ compared to China

A senior Pentagon official said he resigned over the stark difference between US’s and China’s AI capabilities.

Nicolas Chaillan, a former cybersecurity official, quit on Sep. 2. He told the Financial Times that China’s AI had far surpassed that of the US.

“We have no competing fighting chance against China in fifteen to twenty years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” Chaillan said.

The Air Force veteran went on to say that some of the government departments’ cybersecurity defenses were at “kindergarten level.”

Recently, there have been several hacking attempts and ransomware attacks, notably the SolarWinds hack in April 2020. Cybercriminals gained access to the digital activities and emails of US Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, and Department of Defense employees.

Chaillan told the FT that he planned to give Congressional testimony over the threat posed by China.

Source:

A Pentagon official said he resigned because US cybersecurity is no match for China, calling it ‘kindergarten level’