Biden concerned about ‘spy cranes’; over 60% of Western Washington’s cranes could be impacted

The Biden Administration is concerned that a number of so-called “spy cranes” could pose a national security risk. More than 60% of Western Washington’s cranes could be impacted.

U.S. GOVERNMENT CONCERNED ABOUT “SPY CRANES”:

President Joe Biden recently signed a new executive order aimed to boost the security of the nation’s ports and prevent cyberattacks.

The administration announced it would invest $20 billion in U.S. port infrastructure and outline a set of cybersecurity regulations that port operators must comply with across the country.

“We want to ensure there are similar requirements for cyber when a cyberattack can cause just as much if not more damage than a storm or another physical threat,” said Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser at the White House.

Across the nation, ports employ more than 31 million Americans and support nearly 95% of cargo entering the U.S., Neuberger, added. U.S. ports also generate roughly $5.4 trillion for the economy.

The United States has seen a number of cyber threats – from spying to planting malware to infect and disrupt a country’s infrastructure.

In 2021, the operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline had to temporarily halt operations after it fell victim to a ransomware attack. The company, Colonial Pipeline, paid $4.4 million to a Russia-based hacker group, though the Justice Department later recovered much of the money.

In the U.S., around 80% of the giant cranes used to lift and haul cargo off ships onto U.S. docks come from China, and are remotely controlled, said Admiral John Vann, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s cyber command.

The U.S. government said it’s concerned an attack could leave the country and economy in a vulnerable situation.

PORT OF SEATTLE AND TACOMA:

KIRO 7 News reached out to the Port of Tacoma and Seattle to learn more about the giant cranes across the Puget Sound.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) oversees containerized cargo operations at the Port of Tacoma and the Port of Seattle, officials said.

Both ports have a total of 58 cranes across the two harbors.

More than 65% of the cranes, 38, are made by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited (ZPMC), the NWSA told KIRO 7 News.

According to the company’s website, ZPMC is the world’s leading crane manufacturer and employs more than 30,000 workers in 36 countries.

We asked NWSA for an in-person interview, however, a spokesperson declined our request and shared the following statement.

“Marine cargo terminals in The Northwest Seaport Alliance gateway (which includes Port of Tacoma and Port of Seattle) and across the West Coast operate super-post panamax cranes which serve the largest vessels in the transpacific trade. Cranes of this size are manufactured by ZPMC located in China, as there are currently no American-made super-panamax cranes available on the market. In the past few days, there have been several documents published relating to the new Biden Administration program and potential requirements for U.S. ports.

The NWSA currently has strong cybersecurity procedures in place, and we are evaluating new requirements against our existing security measures at our marine terminals. The published requirements at this time do not suggest we will have to replace any of our operating cranes. We recognize guidelines are still emerging on this topic from the Biden Administration and subsequent maritime security organizations and we are tracking this matter closely,” Melanie Stambaugh, director of communications for the NWSA, wrote.

We asked Stambaugh how much the NWSA had paid for the giant ZPMC cranes. We’re still waiting to hear back.

KIRO 7 News reached out to the City of Tacoma and the City of Seattle to get Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards’ and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s thoughts on the administration’s concerns.

A spokesperson for Mayor Harrell said he was not available, and a spokesperson for the City of Tacoma said she is still waiting to hear back from Mayor Woodard.

U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS:

KIRO 7 News spoke with David Bachman, the associate director of UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, who has almost 40 years of experience in Chinese politics, U.S.-China relations, and China foreign policies.

“We’ve heard from the FBI director that there are all sorts of Chinese cyber intrusions into the United States and attempts at espionage, and other kinds of ways that they might be trying to infiltrate our power systems to again pose a threat, a sabotage that way,” he said.

“If the ports were shut down, that’s roughly a quarter of the U.S. economy. So that could cause devastating consequences to people’s ability to live their lives we’re used to having,” said Bachman.

Bachman said many businesses rely on the ports for imported and exported goods.

“If you think about going to Costco, if you think about Walmart, most of their goods are being imported. Many of them from China. If you somehow block the ports, where are your consumer goods going to come from? Where are your phones going to come from? He added, “The cranes are absolutely essential to moving products in and out of our ports. International trade as we know is very important for the Washington economy.”

Bachman said the cranes’ software must be periodically updated to address any possible issues and to include new capabilities.

“They could be reprogrammed to deliberately sabotage the ports, to drop containers in the sea channel or to drop them on the ships that might cause damage and keep the ships locked at their pier, making the port unusable,” he said. “This would conceivably sort of shutdown U.S. shipping, imports and exports going out. Conceivably affect the green trade, our exports, our apples, our grapes, and other things being sent out. And this would mean the crops get ruined. Farmers lose their livelihood or at least lose the value of their crops.”

Bachman said a crippled port could lead to higher inflation and possibly a recession.

“There would be strong inflationary pressures as people desperately seek out the things they need,” Bachman shared.

While Bachman said the impact of a threat is significant, he stressed the likelihood that it would happen is still not clear.

In response to the Biden Administration’s move, Ling Pengyu, a spokesperson from the China Embassy in the United States, shared the following tweet:

KIRO 7 News asked Bachman about his thoughts on the recent tweet.

He said Pengyu’s statement is partially correct.

“China’s imports to the United States are roughly 10% of that, a little less. If they close down our ports, that is going to hurt Chinese exporters to the U.S. They won’t be able to get their goods to market and that will mean unemployment back in China, at a time when China has relatively high unemployment, when there’s lots of concerns about the long-term prospects for the Chinese economy by the Chinese people themselves,” Bachman explained.

“It’s clear that the current relationship between China and the U.S. is not all that great. It’s clearly is again a sign that the U.S. is paying a lot of attention to potential vulnerabilities,” he continued to share.

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS:

In response to Stambaugh’s statement, Bachman said, “We’re not going to be able to easily find a substitute provider of these cranes. So replacing them wholesale is not really a possibility at least in the short term.”

He said an American-based company could rewrite or replace the software on the Chinese-made cranes as a possible solution to help address the U.S. government’s concerns.

“Could perhaps approach Microsoft on ways either protecting the software or finding specialists in the U.S. who could rewrite the software and do the updating so that we close China out of the loop for that,” he said. “We’re approaching, at least seems to me, a half a year before we can even get to a potential regulation.”

Bachman said unless the U.S. government provides incentives for companies to build the giant cranes, a long-term solution to address the risk may not be available soon.