Seebald & Associates friends and colleagues,

Here at Seebald & Associates, we monitor advisories from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency (CISA) and other organizations to ensure that we are aware of emerging threats.

On February 7th, CISA released an advisory related to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber group known as Volt Typhoon. The advisory was issued in cooperation with the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies and foreign allies. The link to that advisory is:

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa24-038a

I’ve included a few key quotes below that show the seriousness of this advisory:

  • “The U.S. authoring agencies have confirmed that Volt Typhoon has compromised the IT environments of multiple critical infrastructure organizations—primarily in Communications, Energy, Transportation Systems, and Water and Wastewater Systems Sectors”
  • “Cyber actors are seeking to pre-position themselves on IT networks for disruptive or destructive cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the United States.”
  • “Volt Typhoon’s choice of targets and pattern of behavior is not consistent with traditional cyber espionage or intelligence gathering operations, and the U.S. authoring agencies assess with high confidence that Volt Typhoon actors are pre-positioning themselves on IT networks to enable lateral movement to OT assets to disrupt functions. “
  • “The U.S. authoring agencies are concerned about the potential for these actors to use their network access for disruptive effects in the event of potential geopolitical tensions and/or military conflicts.”

I strongly encourage you to share this advisory with your cybersecurity teams, and with senior risk management personnel at your organization. The advisory recommends that organizations take immediate actions to hunt for and respond to this threat and provides tools and information for doing so.

Thank you for doing all you can to protect your organization, and our great nation, from all threats.