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

Picture this: it’s Wednesday, September 10th, and if you thought the only dragon terrorizing America was in fantasy novels—think again. This week, the Dragon’s Code is scrawled across America’s vulnerable cyber walls in Mandarin, and I’m Ting, your resident China cyber geek here to decode it fast. So grab a cup of coffee, extra strong—the flavor notes today are ransomware, wiretap hacks, and some spicy trade espionage.

Let’s start with Salt Typhoon. You want sophistication? These folks—linked to China—pulled off what the Washington Post and Forbes describe as one of the "most egregious" breaches yet. Telecom giants like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile got pinched, but the real jaw-dropper: intruders wriggled into the wiretap systems law enforcement uses to monitor suspects. That means attackers had their hands not only in metadata pots but right next to the surveillance machinery itself. Talk about audacious, huh? Security analyst Sean Cairncross called out China on this exact threat, alerting the Billington Cybersecurity Summit crowd that this is a whole new ballgame—hybrid ops now blend classic data theft with the power to disrupt, all while slipping past legacy defenses.

But hold up—if you think it’s just telecom under siege, let me introduce you to another showstopper: the fake lawmaker cyber sting. Picture this: hackers masquerading as John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, zipped off malware-laden emails to trade officials, law firms, and even a foreign government just days before sensitive trade talks in Sweden. The caper’s signature tactics—improper cloud channel compromise, zero-day exploits, and living-off-the-land techniques—scream advanced persistent threats, with APT41 (one of China’s headline-hacking crews) fingered by analysts like those at Mandiant and Abnormal AI. The goal? Steal the blueprints, shift U.S. policy, and make Uncle Sam dance to Beijing’s cyber tune.

Attribution is always a chess match, but as Ground News reports, the convergence of code, time zones, and infrastructure leaves even skeptical intelligence veterans admitting the evidence is—well—a dragon-shaped fingerprint. Still, as the former intelligence analyst warned, it’s probabilistic, not definitive, even if the signs read “Made in China.”

Defensively, we’re seeing a pivot: National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross and NSC’s Alexei Bulazel dropped the passivity act, calling for a whole-of-nation strategy. That means bigger budgets, faster updates to old-school tech, prepping for quantum threats, and—yes—embracing offensive cyber moves to stop adversaries cold. The admin is pushing for tighter private sector ties and tougher incident intel sharing, especially with state and local leaders who, frankly, are tired of being the weakest link.

Lessons from this cyber siege? Hybrid threat actors now escalate from snooping to sabotage. Supply chain and firmware vulnerabilities are juicy doorways; and, above all, sophisticated phishing and impersonation crush soft underbellies. Experts like Haiman Wong from the R Street Institute agree: coherent, resilient strategies and global partnerships are non-negotiable.

America’s under siege, listeners, but the plot twists are coming. Be vigilant out there, and remember: in cyber, the dragon never sleeps, but neither do we. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe for more. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI