Salt Typhoon Swipes US Cyber Skeleton Key: 9-Month Heist Rocks Gov Networks

This is your China Hack Report: Daily US Tech Defense podcast.Hey listeners, Ting here, and it is July 16, 2025. You’re tuned in to your daily China Hack Report: US Tech Defense. Let’s cut through the noise and drop right into today’s cyber battleground—because wow, it’s been a wild 24 hours.First, the headline hit: Chinese state-backed hacking collective Salt Typhoon just notched its boldest strike yet, compromising a US Army National Guard network for nine whole months. According to a Department of Defense leak, these folks didn’t just peek around—they made off with network configurations, admin credentials, and communications spanning every state and at least four US territories. Imagine a locksmith swiping the master blueprint and all the keys—that’s what Salt Typhoon achieved, potentially setting up a daisy-chain of follow-on attacks against more US government and critical infrastructure orgs. And get this: the stolen haul included the personal info and work locations of state security personnel, literally painting a target on our frontline cyber defenders. With National Guard cyber teams plugging directly into critical threat intelligence centers in 14 states, this breach isn’t just a bad day at the office. The risk is US infrastructure defense going soft precisely when the alarms are blaring hardest—from water and power to transport and comms systems.How’d they pull off this heist? Salt Typhoon hammered old vulnerabilities in Cisco and Palo Alto Networks edge devices. We’re talking CVEs as ancient as 2018—so if you still haven’t patched CVE-2018-0171, CVE-2023-20198, CVE-2024-3400, or cousins, it is DEFCON 1 patch time, folks. Salt Typhoon’s been rotating IPs and targeting both US and Canadian telecoms to hijack data and map out backdoors into wiretap systems. Chasing credentials and network diagrams, these hackers are basically buying the hacking equivalent of GPS, maps, and local guides—just with your admin roots instead of hiking boots.While Salt Typhoon’s got the spotlight, let’s not ignore China’s Volt Typhoon, who made a failed play at US critical infrastructure, particularly aiming at Guam. NSA’s Kristin Walter says their party got busted early, so call one for blue team, but it’s a grim reminder of Beijing’s “pre-position and wait” cyberwar playbook. Coupled with the ongoing spike in DDoS attacks—2025’s first half has already outstripped 2024, says CyberHub Podcast—security teams should brace for more high-volume, multi-pronged headaches.In the malware alert lane, this week’s standout is HazyBeacon—this little stinger uses DLL side-loading and AWS Lambda URLs to blend into cloud traffic, evade detection, and exfiltrate sensitive policy docs. While its main targets so far are Southeast Asian governments, the techniques are so cloud-resilient, US orgs should absolutely be on their toes.Now, what’s the response cycle? CISA and partners have a crisp punch list: Patch Chrome immediately for CVE-2025-6554, segment those edge devices, audit all remote access, and double-check developer and supply chain dependencies. Telecom shops—log review is your new bedtime ritual, in case Salt Typhoon left something funky behind. And seriously, test those DDoS defenses, even on a lazy Sunday.That’s your China-linked cyber threat rundown for July 16. Patch up, stay sharp, and keep the popcorn handy—because this show is nowhere near intermission. Thanks for tuning in, be sure to subscribe, and we’ll be back with your daily cyber sitcom tomorrow. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.For more http://www.quietplease.aiGet the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOtaThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

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