Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team’s statement points to Beijing’s motives and its belief that there will be no repercussions from the current U.S. administration: “Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.”

There are two key take-aways from Wednesday’s news from Microsoft: 1) Chinese President Xi Jinping has consistently brushed aside diplomacy while actively preparing for potential conflict with the U.S. and 2) detection of such attacks remains a key gap for critical infrastructure cybersecurity. //

More policies and more people are themselves not a solution. The Department of Homeland Security and other federal stakeholders have been given authorities to be proactive in their approach to cybersecurity. However, the model the government has embraced is a flat-footed and clumsy approach that keeps them in a constant state of response and recovery—awaiting alerts from the private sector and then managing damage-control messaging afterward.

Instead of waiting for the private sector to decide to share information, DHS must become forward-leaning and take meaningful steps toward addressing the risk and mitigating cyber threats to our critical infrastructure. ///

Not sure we should have the government leading the way in this, we would end up just like China, with bureaucrats inside private sector security...