Volt Typhoon & Salt Typhoon: These two “natural disasters” are very real, and here’s what you need to know

Overview: The Crisis is Unfolding Before “US”

In a startling development that has sent shockwaves through the U.S. national security establishment, Chinese state-sponsored hackers, have successfully infiltrated multiple American telecommunications providers, compromising sensitive data and communications. This breach, attributed to a hacking group known as “Salt Typhoon,” represents one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents in recent memory, with far-reaching implications for national security, privacy, and international relations.

Let’s rewind back to May 2023: a Microsoft Threat Intelligence press release outlines the known information on Volt Typhoon, the objectives and techniques used to run their campaigns, as well as the specific tactics used to achieve and maintain access to such critical infrastructure. Anyone who had been compromised or affected at that time was directly contacted by Microsoft.

Then, in February 2024, CISA released a report on files discovered from Volt Typhoon. The collection of files discovered, without getting into technical details, work together to let hackers find, access, and control an unsuspecting victim’s computer, completely undetected. For anyone interested, a complete list of the recommendations that were made by CISA for all users and administrators to strengthen their systems’ security posture is…