Are Trade Concerns Trumping US Cybersecurity?

The article describes how the Salt Typhoon APT—linked to China’s Ministry of State Security—compromised telecommunications firms and ISPs (now reported to include over 200 companies across 80 countries), stealing sensitive data and establishing backdoors, and raises concern that recent U.S. policy choices (easing sanctions and modifying telecom cybersecurity rules) prioritize trade negotiations over strong cyber deterrence, arguing for hardened defenses and ‘‘deterrence by denial’’ instead of relying solely on sanctions.