The Salt Typhoon attacks represent a stark reminder of the persistent and evolving threats we face in today’s interconnected world. As highlighted in CISA Director Jen Easterly’s recent blog post, the sophistication of these Chinese state-backed cyber campaigns underscores the urgent need for a unified, proactive approach to securing our critical infrastructure.
At Virtru, we applaud Easterly and the entire team at CISA for their relentless dedication to raising the bar for cybersecurity across public and private organizations. Their ability to detect, analyze, and respond to Salt Typhoon’s intrusion into U.S. telecommunications demonstrates the critical role of partnership in safeguarding our nation’s most essential systems.
The Importance of Public-Private Collaboration
Salt Typhoon is, as Easterly aptly puts it, likely just the “tip of the iceberg.” This reality makes one thing clear: no single organization can address these threats alone. Public-private collaboration is not only necessary but also vital to ensuring we can detect and recover from sophisticated attacks.
Resilience isn’t just about prevention—it’s about architecting systems, training teams, and preparing policies that enable us to recover quickly and effectively when attacks occur.
Furthermore, resilience is about equipping our people with the right data-centric security tools so they can quickly and easily share sensitive information with trusted partners, even when it’s likely that APTs are lurking inside of our conventional networks and IT systems.
The Case for Data-Centric Security in Zero Trust Architectures
The Salt Typhoon campaign illustrates the growing need to extend Zero Trust principles beyond identities, endpoints, networks, and applications. The ultimate target of adversaries like Salt Typhoon isn’t the infrastructure itself—it’s the data.
Virtru’s commitment to open standards like Trusted Data Format (TDF) aligns perfectly with the need for granular data security controls that can scale across complex, interconnected ecosystems. Open standards ensure that:
- Data Protection Follows the Data: Security policies travel with sensitive data wherever it goes.
- Interoperability: Diverse systems and partners can work seamlessly while maintaining strict security requirements.
- Policy Enforcement: Granular access controls ensure that data is only accessible to the right people, at the right time, under the right conditions.
A Call to Action: Building Resilience Together
As CISA emphasizes, “cybersecurity is national security.” The Salt Typhoon attacks show that the threats we face are formidable, but not insurmountable. By embracing Zero Trust principles and data-centric security, we can protect sensitive information while enabling the dynamic collaboration required to counter foreign adversaries.
Virtru stands ready to support this mission. Whether through open standards like TDF, or through commercial off-the-shelf software systems like our Data Security Platform (DSP).
To learn more about how Virtru can support your Zero Trust journey, contact our team or explore our solutions at virtru.com.
