Chinese state-backed threat group Salt Typhoon's widespread compromise of U.S. telecommunications firms last year was noted by former U.S. government officials and other anonymous sources to have been caused by inadequate coordination between the federal government and the telco industry, reports CyberScoop.
Aside from investigators' lack of foresight, the federal government was also said to have released vague vulnerability and risk advisories prior to the incident, as well as failed to compel more robust security posture in the telecommunications sector, according to sources. Other sources also regarded the federal government's uneven prioritization of critical infrastructure. While one source cited the degradation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's relationship with the telecommunications sector, such sentiment was not shared by National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee member and NightDragon CEO Dave DeWalt. "The integration with CISA over the last years has been pretty good... In fact, if anything, it got better during the Biden years," said DeWalt.
Aside from investigators' lack of foresight, the federal government was also said to have released vague vulnerability and risk advisories prior to the incident, as well as failed to compel more robust security posture in the telecommunications sector, according to sources. Other sources also regarded the federal government's uneven prioritization of critical infrastructure. While one source cited the degradation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's relationship with the telecommunications sector, such sentiment was not shared by National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee member and NightDragon CEO Dave DeWalt. "The integration with CISA over the last years has been pretty good... In fact, if anything, it got better during the Biden years," said DeWalt.
