Volt Typhoon Strikes: China Hacks US Routers in Cyber Tsunami!

This is your Dragon's Code: America Under Cyber Siege podcast.

Listeners, this is Ting, your not-so-mild-mannered cyber-wonk on all things Dragon’s Code, and wow—if you thought last week’s hacks were wild, grab your popcorn. Chinese cyber operations have hit the US like a digital summer storm and the methods are more sophisticated than ever.

Let’s get to the main act: Volt Typhoon. If you haven’t heard of this group, you’re either living off the grid, or, well… maybe you’re their next target. Volt Typhoon, pegged as a state-sponsored group operating out of China, has weaponized botnets with stunning precision this week. They went after vulnerable Cisco and Netgear routers, mostly the abandoned, never-updated ones, those digital ghosts powering small offices and homes all across the US. According to the Center for Internet Security, during the last 37 days, Volt Typhoon managed to compromise a jaw-dropping 30% of all exposed Cisco RV320/325 routers in the wild. The real kicker? They’re using these compromised devices as beachheads in our critical infrastructure, especially targeting utilities and supply chains.

How do they break in? Classic exploitation with modern upgrades—first, they scan for routers at the end-of-life stage with known, unpatched vulnerabilities. Once inside, MIPS-based malware is quietly installed, communicating over standard ports, blending in with regular traffic like a cyber ninja. They’ve also been spotted leveraging tools like SoftEther VPN and Cobalt Strike, loading up their custom SoundBill loader, pilfering credentials using Mimikatz, and even tweaking Windows Registry to all but remove the locks on the digital doors.

Attribution is always tough in cyber, but Volt Typhoon’s toolkit, tactics, and language signatures match Beijing’s fingerprints. FBI Director Christopher Wray called Volt Typhoon “the defining threat of our generation” in Congressional testimony this year. Multiple threat intelligence groups—Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, and SecurityScorecard—backed this up, pointing directly at China’s “multi-domain precision warfare” concept. Think big data plus AI, identifying weak points in seconds, pivoting from probe to penetration, wham-bam.

Defensive measures have gone full Star Wars. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), now under Secretary Noem’s heavy hand, launched the Eviction Strategies Tool to help network defenders boot out persistent attackers; Thorium, a new forensic platform; and a national campaign to replace end-of-life routers. The FBI and CISA are telling everyone—if you can’t replace your old equipment, at least shut off remote management. Oh, and double-check your IoT devices: put them on a separate VLAN if you want them to stay out of the cyber blast zone.

Oh, the irony! As the US tries to stop AI chips from falling into Chinese hands, there are unconfirmed reports from Reuters that federal agents may be sneaking tracking devices into shipments from Dell and Super Micro to catch any chips slipping eastward—tracking the trackers, so to speak.

Insider lesson of the week: No matter how much we harden the edge, they’re poking at the legacy stuff we just didn’t patch or forgot about. Anne Neuberger from the National Security Council put it bluntly: “the United States’ critical infrastructure is unready for battle.” The playbook has to change: segment your networks, enforce update discipline, and for heaven’s sake, change those default passwords!

Special thanks to all the cyber pros and federal defenders out there patching the leaks as fast as Volt Typhoon can poke new holes. Listeners, if you want to stay ahead of Dragon’s Code, don’t just keep tuning in—subscribe, and bring a friend! This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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