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In This Issue

Title Story

The China Trap

Picture this: a foreign intelligence service slips quietly into the beating heart of global communications. Not through a dramatic, Hollywood-style hack, but through patience, stealth, and an uncanny ability to live off the land. Imagine Chinese operatives gaining silent access to the routers and switches that carry nearly every phone call, text, and email. Not just slipping inside for a quick look—but settling in like permanent houseguests. If espionage is the art of staying hidden in plain sight, this is the masterpiece.

That’s the reality painted by the latest FBI and CISA cybersecurity advisory backed by 22 other global intelligence agencies. Chinese cyber spies named Salt Typhoon have figured out how to burrow into the backbone of global networks—telecom carriers, transportation hubs, military contractors, and government infrastructure. These are professional operators playing a long game: persistent, patient, and perfectly content to watch, wait, and harvest. The FBI recently notified at least 600 organizations that Salt Typhoon was interested in thier systems.

Their entry points aren’t flashy. They exploit known, unpatched vulnerabilities in routers and VPNs—devices many companies (and most of us) treat as “set and forget.” Once inside, they use the equipment’s built-in features as weapons. It’s espionage by turning the network’s own tools against itself.

Owning the global communication backbone positions China to manipulate the future. If a crisis erupts over Taiwan, persistent access to global telecom systems gives them options far beyond surveillance. Messages could be delayed, rerouted, or quietly altered. Military commands might be mirrored before they reach their destination. Financial transactions could falter at precisely the wrong moment.

The truth is, defense alone won’t solve this problem. A world where one side only defends while the other side relentlessly attacks creates an imbalance that will eventually collapse. To counter it, the U.S. and its allies must build credible cyber deterrence—an understanding that deep infiltration of our networks carries consequences that threaten the adversary’s own infrastructure. In other words, it's time we take the cyber fight to China, Cold War style.

The China Trap is about the strategic shift happening in real time. China has shown it can embed spies inside the systems we depend on to communicate, coordinate, and control. The question is whether we adapt our strategy quickly enough to meet them on that battlefield. Espionage has always been a game of patience. The trap has already been set. The only question is—who ends up caught in it?

Cybersecurity Breach of the Week

Google + TransUnion: A Dangerous Duo

Two headline-grabbing breaches landed this week, exposing a massive ~2.6 billion total—and a reminder that even corporate giants aren’t immune.

Google Alert: A cybercrime group known as ShinyHunters compromised a Salesforce database tied to Google, putting roughly 2.5 billion Gmail and Google Cloud users at potential risk. While the exposed data reportedly involved mostly business contact info, Google’s Threat Intelligence Team warns this could be groundwork for upcoming extortion or phishing campaigns.

TransUnion Breach: Meanwhile, one of the big three U.S. credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, disclosed a breach through a third-party app. Approximately 4.4 million Americans had personal data exposed—names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers—though no credit report data was accessed.

Whether your data resides in a cloud server or a credit bureau, the breach risk is very real. We need to be proactive. Start questioning all “urgent” emails, check accounts regularly, and lock everything down—now.

Cybersecurity Tip of the Week

Credit-Card Espionage: The Skimmer Scam

You pull into a gas station late at night, swipe your card at the pump, and drive off without a second thought. What you don’t see is the tiny device a criminal installed just hours before—an almost invisible skimmer sitting inside the slot, quietly stealing your card information the moment you insert it. By the time you’re home, your financial data may already be on its way to the dark web.

Credit-card skimmers are simple but devastatingly effective. They’re designed to look and feel like part of the machine—an overlay on the card reader, a fake keypad that records your PIN, or even a Bluetooth-enabled gadget that beams your data straight to the thief. They don’t need cutting-edge tech; they rely on speed, stealth, and our assumption that the reader in front of us is safe.

Think like a spy on surveillance duty to fight back.

Tech of the Week

For decades, the flying car has been the stuff of cartoons and sci-fi. Now, it’s edging into reality. Aeronautics startup Alef has kicked off limited operations of its $300,000 flying car at Half Moon Bay and Hollister airports in California.

This isn’t just a drone with seats bolted on—it’s roadworthy. The vehicle drives up to 200 miles like a car, then lifts off vertically and flies 110 miles like a plane. After ten years in development, Alef says full commercial production could begin by early 2026.

It’s pricey, yes. But so were flat-screen TVs and cell phones when they first appeared. The real story isn’t today’s cost—it’s tomorrow’s inevitability. Flying cars may one day feel as ordinary as Uber. What do you think? And do we have to be concerned about road rage in the air?

A.I. Trend of the Week

How to Restore Your Old Photos with Google AI Studio

I’m always playing around with new AI innovations, and this week I stumbled onto one that’s equal parts practical and magical: restoring old photos with Google’s AI Studio.

The trick lies in a model called NanoBanana—a fittingly quirky name for something that can breathe life back into faded memories. Here’s how it works:

1. Head over to Google AI Studio and select NanoBanana as your model.

2. Upload your old, worn-out photo.

3. Enter a simple prompt like: “Restore this photograph.”

4. In seconds, you’ll have a refreshed version.

Below is an old version of my Grandfather John O’Neill that I restored. Let me know whether you tried this and how it worked for you!

Preorder Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime

My new book releases on October 7, but you don’t have to wait to make sure you are one of the first to get it delivered into your hands! Preorder now with this link.

Spies, Lies and Cybercrime will appeal to every person curious or frightened by the prospect of a cyberattack, from students and retirees to the C-Suite and boardroom. 

Join me and take up arms in the current cyber war instead of fleeing while the village burns. Only then can we begin to move the needle toward a world safe from cyber-attacks.  

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Eric

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