Chinese hackers preparing to 'physically wreak havoc' on US critical infra

It is more accurate to say that long-happening preparations will continue unimpeded - by all countries with an interest in performing adversarial action.

This would include the US, who fairly well pioneered aggression against networks and systems.

Meanwhile, news orgs will dutifully sound klaxons when it suits them to do so (ex: Cyber Pearl Harbor). Dire reports can be expected to be free of details that can be verified by qualified, independent netsec experts.

Rounding out news org duties will be serial omissions of events that meaningfully deteriorate society like bulk surveillance of people not suspected of a crime and the routine trading of law/power for campaign cash.

Sounds like a [day of the week].

Highly recommend blocking the ssh port on all public facing instances and machines. Remember the recent xz/ssh backdoor exploit that was discovered.

What if there is another backdoor lurking undiscovered?

Do what I did, only open ssh over a VPN, or at least restrict it to a specific inbound IP or CIDR block under your direct control.

You reap what you sow. When and why did China become an "enemy"? Cooperation would benefit everyone, but of course "the other boys started it first". Mostly these things serve political ends, not yours or mine.