Protecting Critical US Infrastructure from the Chinese

John Hearton, The Best Person for the Job

In 2001, Global Crossing, a company which had built out most of the backbone infrastructure

for our present-day internet, declared bankruptcy. The company owned most of the cabling

and fiber that transmitted communications within and from the United States. A company

controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, Hutchinson Whampoa, put in a bid to buy Global

Crossing and all of it’s affiliated communication infrastructure.

John Hearton, a technology expert who at that time supported the Defense Research and

Engineering Network, realized the acquisition of this infrastructure by the Chinese would

present a huge national security threat. He was able to brief Senator Ted Stevens, who was

then Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop the sale of our communications

network to the Chinese.

90 percent of US internet traffic touched Global Crossing routers at that time. If the Chinese

had been able to acquire this infrastructure they would have been able to see any voice, video

or other communications via the internet and control this communication infrastructure. They

also own and control ports as either end of the Panama Canal. They could have coupled

knowledge gained through monitoring our communications to shut down the Panama Canal

and slow the movement of US Navy support to the Pacific introducing vulnerability to our

national safety.

John Hearton has experience in solving big problems. He’s worked with Congress and large

agencies to protect our country. He understands the threats to our communication

infrastructure and has a history of protecting them. Hearton has successfully ran Cybersecurity

companies and has written and contributed to much of the foundational cybersecurity

regulation still in practice today.