The Daily Raptor | Strategic Intelligence Series | Part 5 of 5
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Thursday, August 14, 2025 Edition

Last week, we walked you through the nightmare — 72 hours of cascading infrastructure failure as China activates years of patient pre-positioning. We showed you how power grids tear themselves apart, financial systems lose transaction integrity, and psychological operations turn uncertainty into societal collapse. We demonstrated the Recovery Gap, where circular dependencies make restoration exponentially harder than destruction. If Part 4 left you with a knot in your stomach, good — that's your survival instinct recognizing an existential threat. But awareness without action is just sophisticated panic. Today, we transform that recognition into resilience. This final installment provides what you need most: a practical, time-phased mobilization plan that acknowledges a fundamental truth — you're already compromised, but you're not powerless. The playbook starts now.

FLASH: CISA Advisory AA24-038A confirms Volt Typhoon actors have maintained persistent access within some victim IT environments "for at least five years." The threat group has successfully compromised organizations across communications, energy, transportation, and water/wastewater sectors. U.S. 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."

KEY DEVELOPMENT: This last year marked major PLA restructuring—the Strategic Support Force disbanded and replaced by three new forces: the Information Support Force, Cyberspace Force, and Aerospace Force. This reorganization creates direct Central Military Commission control over cyber, space, and information warfare capabilities, eliminating bureaucratic layers. The new structure signals China's prioritization of "informatized warfare" and network-centric operations targeting the infrastructure interdependencies identified in our Part 4 analysis.

Core Principle: Your organization must function even with adversaries inside your networks. Every system, process, and decision must account for this reality.

Hunt for Volt (Salt etc) Typhoon indicators using CISA guidance AA24-038A. Search for:

Map critical dependencies between IT, OT, and third-party systems. Identify your crown jewels—systems whose compromise would halt operations.

Priority Patches:

Network Segmentation Quick Wins:

CRITICAL — Direct access to production systems
HIGH — Access to sensitive data/code
MEDIUM — Business process dependencies
LOW — Commodity services

For all CRITICAL tier vendors, verify:

☐ No foreign/PRC ownership or investment
☐ No development centers in China
☐ Third-party dependencies documented
☐ Additional monitoring deployed
☐ Alternative suppliers identified

Emergency Action: Complete CRITICAL vendor assessments within 72 hours

Run These Tabletop Exercises:

Establish Crisis Communications:

Year-End Target: 4-hour recovery time for critical systems with offline backups

2027 (PLA Target Year): Zero Trust fully deployed, AI-enhanced detection operational, supply chain transparency achieved

2028: Automated threat response, firmware integrity verification, integrated cyber-physical defense capability

2029: Industry-wide collective defense protocols, coordinated (sector-wide) incident response, shared deception networks

Note: While monitoring quantum computing developments, prioritize immediate operational threats through 2030.

The Risk: "Chinese cyber forces have pre-positioned for conflict. Volt Typhoon has been in critical infrastructure for 5+ years."

The Impact:

The Investment:

The Differentiator: "Resilience is the new competitive advantage. Customers will choose providers who can operate through crisis."

Red Flag = Immediate Disqualification: Any vendor who cannot provide security audit results or incident response plans.

The PLA doesn't view U.S. infrastructure uniformly. Western U.S. infrastructure (tech backbone, Pacific ports) ranks far higher than Southeastern assets in targeting priorities.

Tier 1 Immediate Action Required:

Your Regional Action: If Tier 1, implement 90-day plan NOW. You're pre-compromised.

Energy: Isolate OT completely, deploy OT-specific detection, establish manual overrides
Financial: Implement transaction integrity monitoring, create offline capability
Healthcare: Segment medical devices NOW, deploy paper-based fallbacks
Water: Air-gap SCADA, implement physical verification every hour
Telecom: Implement RPKI/DNSSEC, segment 5G control planes

The intelligence is clear: Chinese cyber forces have pre-positioned for a conflict that could fundamentally disrupt American society. The timeline is compressed: 2027 represents a critical inflection point. The stakes are existential: failure to prepare guarantees catastrophic potential.

But this is not a story of inevitable defeat; this is a story about American resilience and technical prowess. Organizations that act now — that embrace the assume-breach mindset, invest in resilience, and transform their security postures — will not only survive but emerge as the trusted providers in a future operating environment of uncertainty.

The question is not whether the storm is coming — it's whether you'll be ready when it arrives.

Remember: In the coming conflict, there will be two types of organizations — those that prepared for operating while compromised, and those that became casualties of their own complacency.

Which will you be? That’s right, let’s go!

The Daily Raptor Team

/smb

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This concludes our five-part series "China, Inside the Wire." The threat is real, immediate, and potentially catastrophic. But with clear eyes, strong resolve, and immediate action, American organizations can build the resilience necessary to operate through the coming storm.

For ongoing intelligence updates and tactical guidance: