Beijing's Cyber Bash: Feds Fume, Utilities Zapped, and Spies Lurk in Navy DMs

This is your Digital Frontline: Daily China Cyber Intel podcast.

Welcome back to Digital Frontline: Daily China Cyber Intel. Ting here, and let’s skip the small talk—cyber mayhem waits for no one, especially when Beijing’s threat groups are having a field day. The past 24 hours? Let’s just say, US networks haven’t had a boring minute.

First up, the Senate Armed Services Committee is not mincing words. They want the Department of Defense to get serious about reestablishing deterrence in cyberspace—yes, the full military spectrum is on the table. Top officials and Senate staffers are laser-focused on Chinese cyber players, specifically Volt Typhoon and the sneakier Salt Typhoon. Listeners, if those names ring a bell, it’s probably because Volt Typhoon was caught living off the land in US critical infrastructure—think utilities and ports—using trusted internal tools for decidedly untrustworthy purposes. Salt Typhoon is more of a telecom ghost, poking around for espionage gold. The real alarm is the pivot: China is moving from digital snooping to outright threatening the infrastructure that keeps the US military humming, especially in sensitive locales like Guam.

It’s not just the feds that are sweating. Check Point Research reports a blistering 70% spike in attacks against US utilities. Phishing has gone full supervillain thanks to generative AI—over 4000% increase since ChatGPT launched. The Internet of Things isn’t spared either, with malware attacks rocketing 124% in just the past year, and ransomware is now practically a rite of passage for US businesses. The FCC is tightening the screws too, launching a Council on National Security to hit foreign threats hard, with China’s shadow looming largest over tech and telecom sectors.

One piece of fresh intelligence: DOJ has charged two Chinese nationals accused of trying to embed spies in the US Navy, targeting recruits via social media and leveraging shared background to fish for secrets. Their endgame? Detailed info on weapons, warfighting plans, and logistics—a direct play to disrupt American defense capabilities from within.

On the legislative front, Senators Curtis and Rosen have rolled out the Taiwan Undersea Cable Resilience Initiative Act. It’s all about hardening undersea data arteries—critical pipes Beijing has been linked to tampering with. Real-time monitoring, rapid response, and international coordination are the new buzzwords, and recent deliberate cable disruptions have made this urgent.

Expert advice for all my fellow cyber sentinels out there: Patch anything with a plug and a blinking light—especially Fortinet devices, which Qilin ransomware is feasting on via CVE-2024-21762. Lock down cloud platform access, educate staff on phishing lures (those IT support lookalikes on Teams are everywhere), and double-check that supply chain partners are complying with new DOJ cybersecurity rules now in effect.

Practical upshot: Don’t just defend the castle—assume the adversary is already inside, and chase them out with relentless detection and response drills. Share indicators of compromise with other orgs, refresh incident response plans for supply chain and telecom disruptions, and for the love of all that’s secure, keep tracking those Volt and Salt Typhoon footprints.

Thanks for tuning in to Digital Frontline—your daily dose of witty, wired, China-facing cyber reality. Smash that subscribe button, stay sharp, and remember: forewarned is forearmed. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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