By Doug Kelly
Each October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month reminds us that some of the biggest threats America faces today can be mitigated through accelerating innovation that defends our values and strengthens our nation.
This year, that reminder came with a chilling warning.
Just two weeks ago, the former head of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, retired four-star Gen. Tim Haugh, told CBS’ 60 Minutes that China has already infiltrated large portions of America’s critical infrastructure – our power grids, water systems, transportation networks, and even small-town utilities once thought too minor to target.
These aren’t targeted operations looking to steal corporate data or credit card numbers. They are deliberate, long-term efforts to gain control. Beijing is embedding itself in the systems that power daily American life so that, in a future conflict, it can sow chaos here at home while fighting abroad.
Cyberattacks are no longer confined to high-value targets or defense contractors. They are now a fact of daily life.
Over the past year, U.S. officials uncovered Volt Typhoon, a sweeping Chinese cyber operation that infiltrated critical American infrastructure. We learned that Beijing has been quietly pre-positioning malware across military and civilian networks, embedding backdoors into systems that run everything from utilities to communications. News broke that Chinese hackers stole data from hundreds of thousands of American mobile users and breached major law firms and software companies. And most recently, investigators linked a cyberattack on the Kansas City National Security Campus to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) state-sponsored groups known as Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603.
These incidents underscore a fundamental truth: China exploits cutting-edge technology to undermine American national security and economic strength.
We must meet this threat by harnessing our greatest strength: America’s unmatched capacity to innovate and adapt. The United States is home to the brightest minds and most innovative companies in the world. And across the nation, these innovators are already deploying cutting-edge tools that protect data, detect intrusions, and defend critical systems before they fail.
At the federal level, the Department of Homeland Security is using artificial intelligence to safeguard power grids, transportation networks, and communications systems from cyber sabotage. State and local governments are following suit. In Petersburg, Virginia, city officials recently deployed new service-edge technology to secure water infrastructure. These are critical homegrown solutions that provide a roadmap and model for countering the growing scale of cyber threats.
But while America innovates from the bottom up, China is executing from the top down. Since 2017, Beijing has pursued a national plan to dominate artificial intelligence and cybersecurity through massive state investment, forced technology transfers, and global influence campaigns. Their goal is both economic advantage and unmatched control over the world’s digital architecture.
The U.S. cannot counter that strategy with a patchwork of fifty state rules and inconsistent national policies. Fragmented AI or cybersecurity regulations will only slow development and weaken our defenses. What America needs is a unified, forward-looking national strategy, one that accelerates responsible innovation and keeps our best technologies here at home.
That means modernizing federal cybersecurity programs, investing in next-generation AI defense tools, and closing the 750,000-person shortage in our cybersecurity workforce. It means encouraging public–private collaboration, not punishing it. And it means rejecting policies that would handcuff U.S. innovators through overreach or burdensome regulation.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month should serve as a call to action. China’s threat is organized, state-directed, and growing. Our response must be relentless and focused. If we unleash America’s full innovative capacity, we can secure our infrastructure, protect our citizens, and position the United States to win the global tech race that will define the global balance of power for decades to come.
It matters greatly which country builds the future. America and our allies need to meet this moment, lest we surrender our future to hostile powers.
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