US Cyber Security ‘Kindergarten’ Compared To China

The first designated cyber security chief for the US Air Force has resigned and compared the country’s readiness for cyber warfare to a “kindergarten” compared to China, saying that China is heading towards global dominance in Artificial Intelligence (AI) due to the relatively slow pace of innovation in the United States. 

Nicolas Chaillan, (pictured) former chief software officer at the US Air Force, has said that China’s progress in AI, cyber security and machine learning was much more advanced than that of the United States and that China’s eventual dominance on the world stage was inevitable.

In a length statmement posted on LinkedIn, Chaillan cited Defense Department “detractors” for getting in the way of his work, which included forming an initiative for private companies to develop secure software for the United States. He did not elaborate on his departure, before admitting in an interview that he was frustrated by the inability of the United States to compete against China. 

Mr. Chaillan commented that that fighting China was “impossible” and that “we have no chance of fighting China for fifteen or twenty years.” 

The  LinkedIn  statement reads “I realise more clearly than ever before that, in 20 years from now, our children, both in the United States’ and our Allies’, will have no chance competing in a world where China has the drastic advantage of population over the US... If the US can’t match the booming, hardworking population in China, then we have to win by being smarter, more efficient, and forward-leaning through agility, rapid prototyping and innovation. We have to be ahead and lead. We can’t afford to be behind... Timeliness is foundational to both AI/ML and cyber security, but also for enabling the delivery of capabilities at the pace of relevance.” 

Chaillan said it didn't matter whether the US spent three times as much as China on defense because it was being allocated to the wrong areas.

The criticism comes a year after several US departments were targeted by a ransomware attack against SolarWinds, an enterprise software used by the US State and Treasury Department. The hackers were accused of attempting to steal confidential information and both the US and the UK officially designated the attack as an act of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service,  a charge that Moscow has denied. 

While Russia has proven to be a threat to American cyber security in the past, Chaillan says that China is on its way to political and cultural  dominance for years to come.

In contrast to the US, where companies like Google are reluctant to work with the Pentagon on artificial intelligence, Chaillan points out that Chinese companies are forced to work with the country’s government and investments often do not care about the ethics of citizens.

Speaking in front of the United Nations General Assembly in September, US President  Biden avoided said he was “not looking for: a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs." while his administration works to curtail Chines and Russian influence.

Nicoolas Chaillan / LinkedIn:     The Hill:    Business Insider:   Daily Advent:      Daily Caller:       News-Logics:   

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