China’s Expanding Cyber Offensive: Private Sector Partnerships and Persistent U.S. Espionage Campaigns
Despite recent U.S. indictments targeting Chinese cyberespionage, Chinese hacking campaigns are intensifying in scale, sophistication and persistence, targeting U.S. government, infrastructure, and media entities with alarming regularity. Security firms and federal officials report a surge in breaches attributed to state-linked groups—such as Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon, and Silk Typhoon—who increasingly rely on private contractors and criminal proxies to conduct large-scale intrusions using zero-days, stealth tactics, and ransomware for plausible deniability. This strategy has enabled widespread access to critical systems and prolonged dwell time within compromised networks, challenging conventional cyber defence and attribution models.
Beijing’s offensive model—combining intelligence, military and private-sector actors—has shifted toward exploiting software vendors, cloud providers, and shared service platforms for maximal impact. Notably, groups like Silk Typhoon have proven highly evasive, targeting governments, telecoms, and journalists while deleting forensic traces and reinfecting systems after detection. With CISA facing internal constraints and adversaries growing more agile, U.S. officials warn of long-term risks to national security, particularly in light of Chinese interest in disrupting power grids and communications infrastructure during potential geopolitical flashpoints, including a Taiwan conflict.
