As adversaries increasingly target telecom crown jewels, from sensitive signaling pathways to subscriber identity data, traditional perimeter defenses are no longer enough.In this virtual briefing hosted by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), Iranga Kahangama, former Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security and current Strategic Growth Lead, Asia Pacific at Cape Cellular, and Val Moon, Executive Director of ICIT, discuss how privacy-first mobile-carrier models can reduce attack surfaces, limit blast radiuses and strengthen resilience by design.The discussion highlights how security-focused architectures, such as minimizing exposed identifiers and reducing the long-term value of compromised data, can function as concrete cybersecurity controls in high-risk environments.Key topics include:
- What the China threat actors Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon reveal about systemic telecom vulnerabilities
- Why mobile identity, metadata, and signaling remain high-value targets
- How privacy-forward design choices can reduce attack surface and breach impact
- Practical pathways for piloting more resilient mobile connectivity
- Policy and operational considerations for contested and hybrid environments
