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

Listeners, Ting here—resident cyber sleuth and all-around China watcher—coming at you with the wildest week in the world of digital dragons, aka Chinese cyber operations and the U.S. infrastructure they love to poke at. The headline? Salt Typhoon. Sounds poetic, right? Nothing poetic about it if you're running America's telecommunication networks or, say, keeping military comms out of prying hands. According to CYFIRMA’s latest weekly intelligence, Salt Typhoon swept up data from practically every American—yep, that means you, your grandma, even your ex. The operation blitzed through telecoms, government networks, transportation hubs, lodging chains, and some military systems. China may not have knocked out the lights, but they’ve inhaled details from systems essential to daily U.S. life.

Now, let’s talk tradecraft. Salt Typhoon’s crew favors what the nerds call “living off the land” tactics—no exotic malware here, just hijacking trusted system admin tools. It’s like if someone broke into your house and rearranged your furniture using your own hands while you slept. On top of that, Chinese ops have gotten bolder with clever social engineering. During July’s trade talks, hackers masqueraded as the chair of the U.S. Congressional China committee, firing off emails with infected attachments to trade reps, lawyers, and government wonks. The malware? Classic APT41 signatures—the kind that give forensic analysts nightmares.

Defensive measures were swift but sobering. The U.S. and Western allies tried the diplomatic equivalent of yelling “Stop!”—the joint “name-and-shame” statement last week. They publicly tied Salt Typhoon to Chinese tech companies with People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of State Security connections. On the ground, network admins everywhere are tightening up endpoint security, purging old admin credentials, and ramping up zero-trust verification. Over at CISA, Director Jennifer Easterly championed cross-industry info sharing. The upcoming WIMWIG Act will decide if that legal backbone for cybersecurity info swaps stands strong or gets axed. No industry wants to go solo against the PLA’s finest.

What about attribution? Here, the evidence is not just server fingerprints—it’s geopolitics. Private sector analysts like Mandiant chime in, pointing out identical code reuse and attack infrastructure long tied to Chinese APTs. CYFIRMA notes the strategic shift: China is moving from straightforward economic theft to more overt sabotage prep. Case in point—Volty Typhoon, probing energy and transit networks for that “just in case” moment.

But what do the wise folks say? CISA’s former chief Chris Krebs warns that until public-private teamwork is frictionless, adversaries will feast on soft American underbellies. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reminded everyone this week that open societies face a trade-off—freedom comes with digital risk, and the fragmented cyber landscape is ripe for exploitation. Even as both sides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, hop onto video calls and try to keep things civil, the digital fight rages.

Takeaways for the AI age: Don’t wait for Washington to save you. Update your software. Scrub those old user accounts. Report anomalies ASAP. And—pro tip—never open attachments from politicians, especially during trade talks!

That’s the latest chapter of Dragon’s Code. Thanks for tuning in. Don’t forget to subscribe for more cyber intrigue. 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