Telecommunications networks are vital to national security, but adversaries are infiltrating them to collect intelligence and prepare for large-scale disruption.
The Secret Service’s recent disruption of an imminent telecommunications threat in New York City is a stark reminder that America’s critical infrastructure is under daily assault from nation-state and transnational criminal adversaries seeking to advance their geopolitical agendas. Federal officials say the dismantled network of electronic devices was capable of disabling cell towers in a denial-of-service style attack while also enabling encrypted, anonymous communications for criminal and potentially nation-state groups. This was not vandalism. It was sophisticated infrastructure designed for disruption and covert communications.
Weaponizing that capability is what makes this case particularly alarming. Had the plot succeeded, it would have disrupted 911 calls, delayed ambulance dispatch, and degraded coordination among police, firefighters, and hospitals. At the same time, it would have allowed hostile actors to mask their communications, conduct surveillance, and manipulate the very channels Americans use every day. It threatened to make the lifelines of modern society unusable while converting them into tools of espionage.
Telecommunications: The Nervous System of Modern Society
Telecommunications is more than a commercial service. It is a life-sustaining sector that underpins every other part of the economy. Energy grids depend on telecom backbones for telemetry and demand response. Financial markets process trillions of dollars across these networks daily. Hospitals rely on them to coordinate patient care. Transportation systems, water utilities, and emergency services all require continuous connectivity. If energy is the heartbeat of modern society, telecommunications is the nervous system.
This dependence is most visible when it fails. The devastation in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene showed how the loss of power and cell service paralyzed communities. Residents could not reach emergency services, hospitals struggled to coordinate, and recovery slowed. What nature revealed in the Southeast, adversaries are attempting to replicate deliberately by targeting America’s lifeline sectors.
What makes this disrupted attack especially dangerous is that, unlike past outages confined to specific mobile providers, it would have disrupted towers irrespective of carrier. The effect would have been near-blackout conditions for all cellular communications in the affected area.
China’s Digital Espionage Campaigns
The New York case highlights the intent of other state-sponsored operations. US Treasury sanctions and multiple advisors have linked China’s Ministry of State Security to the Salt Typhoon campaign, which infiltrated major American telecom providers. Investigators found the group sought persistent access to lawful intercept and metadata systems—tools that track communications under court order—not immediate disruption. That approach highlights how everyday businesses and ordinary Americans can be turned into geopolitical pawns. By compromising intercept systems, Salt Typhoon could monitor conversations across government, business, and civil society while keeping the option to disrupt those networks if tensions escalated.
Salt Typhoon’s methods resemble those of Volt Typhoon, a People’s Liberation Army-affiliated group targeting America’s energy sector. Both use stealthy “living off the land” tactics to hide inside networks. One focuses on telecom, the other on energy, but their objectives converge. Both seek to pre-position inside lifeline sectors to collect intelligence and prepare for future disruption. The goal is leverage. If conflict comes, adversaries want the option to shut down or degrade the systems Americans depend on every day.
The Ripple Effects of Telecommunications Blackout
That strategy works because telecommunications connect everything. If cell towers go dark, emergency calls can fail, utilities can lose visibility into the grid, and financial institutions cannot execute trades. The ripple effects are not hypothetical. They are real, and they can paralyze cities in hours.
The dismantled network in New York was evidence of this convergence. It could have disabled towers and provided covert channels for hostile communication. That is the kind of dual-use targeting Americans should expect from nation-state adversaries. These operations are not limited to government systems. They deliberately exploit the infrastructure that individuals and businesses rely on every day. Each of us, knowingly or not, can be made a pawn in a larger geopolitical game.
Securing the Lifelines of the United States
The current reality of today’s threat environment demands a shift in how security threats are treated. Security threats that target critical infrastructure sectors cannot be seen only as commercial industry issues, but as national security priorities. This requires real-time intelligence sharing between government and private sector partners. Local law enforcement must also remain heavily integrated with federal authorities, as advanced threats and state-sponsored campaigns may originate abroad but often first surface at community levels.
The Secret Service deserves credit for dismantling this plot before it could cause harm. But the challenge is ongoing. Nation-state adversaries are patient with the intent of probing for weaknesses, not to cause immediate chaos, but to maintain the capacity to disrupt when it matters most.
The fight over critical infrastructure is no longer theoretical. From Salt Typhoon’s covert infiltration of telecom providers to the dismantled network in New York, adversaries are targeting lifeline sectors in ways that blend intelligence collection with the capacity for disruption. Their aim is to compromise daily life in the United States, to turn businesses and individuals alike into instruments of geopolitical leverage. Protecting telecommunications is foundational to executing public safety, commerce, and national resilience. The next attempt may not be stopped in time.
About the Author: Fred Bailey
Fred Bailey is a cybersecurity and national security leader with over 20 years of experience in protecting critical infrastructure and securing the US energy landscape. He has directed strategies countering nation-state threats across the energy, transportation, and communications sectors. A US Army veteran, Fred recently retired from federal service where he has led intelligence operations, risk mitigation, and resilience planning for Homeland Security to safeguard industrial and energy supply chains, ensuring both economic security and national defense readiness.
Image: Who is Danny/shutterstock
