Report: Chinese lidar technology poses national security threat

A new report from a prominent think tank rings alarm bells over China’s plans to use advanced remote sensing technology as a means of breaching networks and infiltrating critical infrastructure to spy on Americans and the U.S. military.

Known as light detection and ranging (lidar), the technology harnesses laser pulses to build precise, three-dimensional maps of environments it is deployed in. 

By measuring how long it takes the pulses to travel back to sensors, the technology can create exceptionally detailed and accurate spatial data which outstrips what has historically been available, according to a report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit research organization. 

Lidar, now used globally in a wide variety of civilian and military use cases, “stands at the center of Beijing’s bid for technological superiority,” the report says, warning that Chinese companies are taking control of the global lidar market, with Chinese-made sensors now used widely in the U.S. as “essential nodes” within public safety, transportation and utility systems.

China-produced lidar’s presence in the U.S. production chain creates a clear opportunity for espionage and sabotage by “potentially enabling Beijing to access sensitive U.S. data or disrupt critical operations,” according to the report, which likens the potential for lidar abuse to the ways in which China has exploited Huawei’s communications technology.

Congress has been paying attention.

In May, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) introduced legislation which would bar the Department of Defense from buying Chinese-made lidar.

In September, the chairman of the House China Select Committee announced proposed legislation banning the Department of Transportation from buying equipment that contains China-made lidar technology. 

The U.S. must increase lidar production domestically and nurture efforts to do so in allied countries, according to the report. It also should enforce tough cybersecurity standards for lidar technology to ensure its use in civilian and military networks is secure, the report said.

Calling lidar a “critical” technology, the report offers a silver lining. Many American and other Western firms are capable of manufacturing the technology, allowing the U.S. to walk away from China-produced options.

But the U.S. must act now, the report authors contend.

“LiDAR’s role in tomorrow’s autonomous systems makes it a strategic vulnerability today,” the report says.

“LiDAR isn’t just about mapping roads — it’s about mapping vulnerabilities…  Combined with China’s playbook from Volt Typhoon, the risks of sabotage and operational control are chillingly clear,” the report adds, referring to a Beijing-linked hacking operation into critical U.S. systems.

The threat is especially serious for the automotive sector, the report says, citing a recent Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service bulletin asserting that a Chinese lidar manufacturer planned to transmit data culled from Estonian cars back to China. 

An unnamed Chinese company was reportedly developing lidar systems for self-driving cars in Estonia that would “scan the local environment and transmit this information to Beijing,” the report says.

“Although data collected for autonomous driving is typically deleted if non-essential, this Chinese firm intended to transfer all environmental data to a China-based database, raising concerns about the potential exploitation of this technology for Chinese intelligence purposes, such as mapping foreign infrastructure, identifying sensitive locations, or tracking patterns of movement.”