Cyber cuts are freaking out China watchers

Politico

05-06-2025

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With help from Anthony Adragna and Aaron Mak
More than 1,000 cybersecurity professionals have either left or are set to walk off their jobs in the federal government in the coming months, as the Department of Government Efficiency initiative drives layoffs and buyouts across agencies.
The timing could not be worse: staff numbers are plummeting just as China is ramping up its cyberattacks — and these efforts have soared in recent years.
These operations include hacking group Volt Typhoon, found to have burrowed widely into critical infrastructure since at least 2022, with experts warning U.S. water systems and transportation networks have been compromised. And they also include Salt Typhoon, discovered to be in U.S. telecom networks last year.
Together, these ramped up hacks from government-backed Chinese groups amount to advance work for sophisticated war, said retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, current senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
'As a military planner, this is what I called operational preparation of the battlefield,' Montgomery said. 'China has continued to accelerate their efforts to gain access into U.S. and allied critical infrastructures and we are still playing a defensive game of trying to identify and remove [them].'
The cuts affect a cross-section of the federal cyber army. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, is expecting to lose about 1,000 employees, amounting to about a third of its personnel, as well its top leadership and programs around election security.
The agency has been in President Donald Trump's crosshairs since the cyber chief he appointed, Chris Krebs, said the 2020 election was secure. Trump fired Krebs as a result.
The State Department's cyber bureau is set to be split up in a reorganization of the office. The Office of the National Cyber Director at the White House and U.S. Cyber Command are without Senate-confirmed leaders.
The Defense Information Systems Agency, which secures the Pentagon's IT and telecommunications infrastructure, is also set to lose about 10 percent of its workforce, as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's drive to reduce the DOD's civilian workforce by between 5 and 8 percent.
Lawmakers from both parties are sounding the alarm.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said during a Senate hearing Thursday that Salt Typhoon hackers still 'have unlimited access to our voice messages, to our telephone calls,' describing it as 'astounding.'
A group of House Democrats led by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) sent a letter Thursday to both Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking about what has been done to respond to Salt Typhoon. The lawmakers wrote that agency personnel cuts showed that 'instead of rising to meet the moment, the Trump administration seems intent on dismantling the core institutions responsible for cyber defense.'
The ODNI and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Noem told cyber experts at the RSA Conference in San Francisco in April to 'just wait until you see what we are able to do' on cyber, noting that 'there are reforms going on' around the topic.
Last year provided a case study for the threat when the Chinese government hacking group Salt Typhoon was discovered to have penetrated U.S. telecommunications systems, including devices belonging to then-candidate Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
The breach was so vast that Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.), a former telecoms executive, estimated earlier this year that it would take '50,000 people and a complete shutdown of the network for 12 hours' to fully weed out Chinese hackers from U.S. telecommunications systems.
Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, told POLITICO in a recent interview that 'China is just increasing the pace of what they're doing,' noting that the nation is 'just the biggest, broadest threat out there.'
Relief seems a long way away. The Senate Homeland Security Committee held a nomination hearing Thursday for Sean Cairncross as the next national cyber director at the White House. Cairncross has virtually no experience in cyber. He previously led the Millennium Challenge Corporation and worked in various leadership roles at the Republican National Committee.
The nomination of Sean Plankey to lead CISA is still pending. Plankey is a former cyber official at the Energy Department and on the National Security Council. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has blocked Plankey's confirmation vote in the full Senate until CISA publicly releases a 2022 report on telecom vulnerabilities.
Jim Lewis, distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and a Washington cyber expert, said that it was understandable that the new administration would take time to establish its cyber policies, and anticipated that agencies might stabilize when new funding becomes available after the fiscal year ends in September. But he said the gap until then leaves a dangerous opening.
'Will the Chinese figure out that they have an opportunity and do they need to take it? I think right now the answer is no,' Lewis said of the delay. 'But that's three months of open season.'
An Apple appeals setback
A federal appeals court rejected Apple's emergency request to halt court-ordered changes to the company's app store — primarily an order that it can't charge commissions for certain payments.
Wednesday's order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it considered a host of factors in denying Apple's request for a stay, including whether Apple was likely to succeed in its appeal, whether it would be irreparably harmed absent court action and whether a stay of the lower court's order would be in the public interest. Briefs in the appeal are due this summer.
'After reviewing the relevant factors, we are not persuaded that a stay is appropriate,' the court wrote.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Northern District of California previously ruled Apple could no longer charge a commission when a link took users to a third-party payment app. The judge said in late April that Apple violated a prior injunction and that a company executive 'outright lied' under oath.
'We are disappointed with the decision not to stay the district court's order, and we'll continue to argue our case during the appeals process,' an Apple spokesperson said. 'As we've said before, we strongly disagree with the district court's opinion. Our goal is to ensure the App Store remains an incredible opportunity for developers and a safe and trusted experience for our users.'
State AI rules threaten national security
When House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the controversial 10-year moratorium on enforcement of state AI laws in the spending bill, he invoked national security as the reason.
'We have to be careful not to have 50 different states regulating AI, because it has national security implications, right?' Johnson told POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill and Anthony Adragna on Wednesday. The speaker's office declined to elaborate when DFD followed up.
Republicans have generally justified the moratorium — and potentially preempting state laws — as crucial for business development. So why does this now matter to national security?
Johnson's national security argument has been emerging on the edges of the current reconciliation debate.
The House's Bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Task Force floated a moratorium in a report last year, suggesting that states do not have the expertise to evaluate the national security ramifications of their AI legislation. Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, wrote last week that the patchwork of state laws disrupts the supply chains enabling the Department of Defense to implement AI.
James Czerniawski, senior policy analyst for Americans for Prosperity, also endorsed Johnson's national security framing on Wednesday, citing the tight race with China for AI leadership.
Is it a real concern, or just expediency? National security has been a reliable argument for lawmakers struggling to get a provision over the line, from the TikTok ban to the CHIPS Act. Whatever the rationale, whether the moratorium survives the Senate parliamentarian is the real question now.
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