WASHINGTON — The number two official at America’s premier technical spying agency offered a dire warning about the threat posed by China “in every domain,” including alleging that Chinese companies helped Iranian forces target US installations in the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict.
“China has its hands in most every national security priority we are dealing with today, and it’s a hot competition,” National Security Agency Deputy Director Tim Kosiba said in an address at the TechNet Augusta conference on Thursday.
From Greenland to the Korean Peninsula to the Western Hemisphere, Kosiba said Beijing is playing “spoiler” and “disruptor,” attempting to “help [America’s] enemies in most every sphere across domains and environments.”
“For example, it’s no secret that Chinese companies provided GEOINT [geospatial intelligence] to the Iranians to help hit our bases and our allies,” he said.
In April, The Washington Post reported that Chinese firms, some with links to the Chinese military, had been using artificial intelligence to analyze information from open-source data markets to track US forces. While the Post said US officials were divided on how much of a threat the companies’ information posed, Australian outlet ABC reported that at least one defense source believed it was endangering lives. China’s foreign ministry told ABC at the time that the imagery “was obtained from open-source channels and is a routine market practice.”
Kosiba also accused China of providing intelligence, drone technology and training to Russia “in its unprovoked war against the Ukraine, in what they call a partnership without limits.” Citing European intelligence, Reuters reported in May that China had trained scores of Russian soldiers.
“Our troops and our cyber and SIGINT [signals intelligence] resources have been tasked to track and counter these activities and many more,” Kosiba said, “and they are the priority for this administration.”
To help, Kosiba said the NSA is working more closely with “partners at home and abroad” and attempting to clear bureaucratic hurdles for working more closely with industry.
That’s especially key, he said, for another top priority: AI.
“We must use our advances to our advantage, and AI is a massively important enabler that changes the character of warfare, both on the offensive and defensive sides,” he said.
“We live in a world of agentic AI,” he added, referring to more autonomous AI models that take multi-step actions rather than react to specific user prompts, “and I mean right now — not in a year or a decade, but today, in the engagements we are in today.”
The breakneck speed of AI development “directly intersects” with the Chinese threat, he said.
“Our adversaries are investing resources in AI capabilities designed to penetrate our networks and outpace us. Whomever successfully integrates AI … into their workflows and leverages it to full[y] harness the power of their data will have an immense advantage.
“We can’t fall behind, not even for a moment,” he said.