Aviatrix Blog 
The attack by the “Salt Typhoon” APT, generally assumed to be a Chinese state-sponsored threat group, on US Service providers represents a staggering escalation in the scale and sophistication of cyber threats facing today’s enterprises. This global campaign has targeted the telecommunications sector, a backbone of critical infrastructure, exposing vulnerabilities inherent in complex, distributed systems that underpin modern society.
The Salt Typhoon attack’s reach and precision underscore the growing reality that traditional approaches to security are no longer sufficient to combat these advanced persistent threats (APT). For enterprises, it’s not just a wake-up call—it’s a mandate to rethink and fortify their cybersecurity and governance strategies.
For governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) teams, this is a pivotal moment. Protecting sensitive data, meeting regulatory mandates, and ensuring uninterrupted operations require a modern, scalable approach to security. That’s where Aviatrix Secure High-Performance Datacenter Edge (DCE) comes in. Aviatrix provides the secure networking foundation enterprises need to address sophisticated threats like Salt Typhoon, while aligning with the collective guidance of leading cybersecurity authorities, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and international agencies such as Australia’s ASD Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Canada’s Cyber Security Centre (CCCS), and New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ).
With Secure High-Performance Datacenter Edge, enterprises gain a purpose-built solution to address vulnerabilities like those exploited in the Salt Typhoon campaign. Specifically designed for secure, high-performance connectivity between data centers and cloud environments, DCE enhances security and compliance while delivering exceptional scalability across hybrid and multicloud architectures.
Aviatrix empowers organizations to strengthen their defenses and maintain regulatory confidence across single, hybrid, and multicloud environments by combining advanced security features with seamless compliance capabilities.
What You’ll Learn:
- What makes the Salt Typhoon attack a threat to enterprise networks
- How Aviatrix offers crucial network visibility, embedded security, zero-trust architecture, compliance, and scalability
- Why Secure High-Performance Datacenter Edge is pivotal in securing critical cloud infrastructure against APTs
What Makes Salt Typhoon So Dangerous?
The Salt Typhoon APT isn’t just another cyber threat—it’s a masterclass in exploiting complexity.
The Salt Typhoon breach exposed critical weaknesses in network encryption strategies, particularly for organizations relying on private circuits without encryption or using methods like MACsec, which only protect data at individual segments. The issue arises when data traverses parts of the network not fully owned by the organization, allowing attackers to intercept traffic that is either unencrypted or insufficiently protected. Service provider networks, which act as intermediaries, often fall outside the organization’s control and may not align with its stringent security policies.
This lack of direct oversight heightens the risk, but the core vulnerability lies in the transmission of data without comprehensive encryption or through methods like MACsec. While MACsec encrypts data at specific network points, it leaves it exposed between hops, creating windows of opportunity for attackers with access to compromised or malicious network devices to intercept, alter, or extract sensitive information.
Attackers exploiting these vulnerabilities can intercept data, inject malicious content, and exfiltrate valuable information—often posing as trusted devices to avoid detection.
Aviatrix Datacenter Edge (DCE) gives customers complete control over data security by ensuring encryption and protection at critical points within the network, even in potentially compromised environments. By securing key segments of the network and limiting the risk of exposure between hops, Aviatrix mitigates the vulnerabilities associated with traditional encryption methods like MACsec. With Aviatrix, data remains encrypted and secure where it matters most, while providing the visibility and control organizations need to safeguard sensitive information—delivering peace of mind in an era of increasingly sophisticated threats.
This APT underscores the need for encryption to protect data throughout its entire journey, not just at individual steps. Unlike hardware-dependent encryption methods that frequently call for specialized, expensive licensing, Aviatrix High-Performance Encryption ensures that data encryption is seamless and adaptable across environments without the need for specialized hardware at each point. With software-defined encryption, data stays protected from the moment it leaves your network until it reaches its destination. This reduces the risk of breaches, even when data passes through third-party networks, ensuring that sensitive information remains secure and fully under your control.
This state-sponsored campaign leverages a potent combination of known vulnerabilities, lateral movement, and advanced obfuscation techniques to infiltrate networks, compromise systems, and exfiltrate data. But the real danger lies in its ability to operate stealthily, often blending malicious activity with legitimate network traffic to evade detection for extended periods.
For GRC leaders, the implications are far-reaching. Threats like the Salt Typhoon APT challenge not only the resilience of technical defenses but also the effectiveness of governance and compliance frameworks in mitigating risk.
This attack underscores the importance of proactive measures, comprehensive real-time visibility, and robust security architectures.
How Aviatrix Protects Organizations from Advanced Threats
Aviatrix provides the networking and security foundation enterprises need to protect against threats like a Salt Typhoon-style attack while maintaining compliance across your network. Here’s how we do it:
1. Visibility That Meets CISA and NIST Standards
Aviatrix delivers advanced network visualization and monitoring capabilities, equipping organizations to meet CISA’s guidance for real-time threat detection and NIST’s focus on continuous monitoring:
- Spot anomalies in real time, enhancing incident detection as per NIST’s Incident Response (IR) controls.
- Pinpoint unusual traffic patterns that align with CISA’s recommendations for identifying and mitigating malicious activity.
- Generate compliance-ready reports that streamline adherence to NIST 800-53, 800-171, and other regulatory frameworks.
Aviatrix DCE further enhances visibility by providing insights into datacenter and cloud traffic, meeting CISA’s real-time monitoring standards and aligning with NIST’s continuous monitoring framework. DCE enables organizations to track and analyze traffic across hybrid environments, ensuring potential threats are identified and mitigated before they escalate.
This level of visibility isn’t optional; it’s essential for staying ahead of attackers while meeting audit requirements.
2. Embedded Security Aligned with Federal and International Guidance
Aviatrix integrates proactive security measures directly into your cloud architecture, adhering to CISA’s recommendations for layered defenses and NIST’s Access Control (AC) and System Protection (SC) controls:
- Intelligent traffic segmentation isolates workloads and prevents lateral movement, addressing critical NIST risk management objectives.
Dynamic policy enforcement adapts in real time, ensuring alignment with CISA’s emphasis on adaptive defenses. - Centralized control maintains consistent security across all cloud environments, meeting CISA’s call for unified management.
With Aviatrix, your network doesn’t just respond to threats—it actively blocks them before they can take root.
3. Zero Trust Network Architecture Built for Modern Threats
The threat of the Salt Typhoon APT reinforces the importance of Zero Trust principles, which are foundational to both CISA guidance and NIST’s Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) model. Aviatrix enables organizations to:
- Enforce access control by applying RBAC and least-privilege principles, while SmartGroups and firewall rules regulate network traffic, granting access only to verified devices and applications—aligning with NIST’s Access Control requirements.
- Segment workloads to reduce the blast radius of any potential breach, aligned with NIST’s Containment (CM) objectives.
- Continuously monitor and adapt policies to evolving risks, delivering on the Zero Trust approach recommended by CISA.
The result? A secure, compliant network where threats are contained and mitigated effectively.
4. Compliance Made Simple and Scalable
For GRC teams, Aviatrix simplifies adherence to both CISA’s guidance and NIST’s standards:
- Audit-ready reporting aligns with key frameworks like NIST 800-53, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR.
- Seamless SIEM integration enhances incident response capabilities while aligning with federal reporting requirements.
- Clear, actionable insights into security posture make compliance both manageable and meaningful.
Whether preparing for an audit or addressing an incident, you can use Aviatrix to ensure your organization stays compliant and confident.
5. Scalability Without Compromise
Cloud environments evolve quickly, and GRC leaders need solutions that scale without sacrificing security or compliance. Aviatrix eliminates this trade-off:
- Our secure cloud networking platform grows with your organization, ensuring you remain aligned with NIST and CISA recommendations even as complexity increases.
Why GRC Teams Trust Aviatrix
The attack by Salt Typhoon on US Service Providers isn’t just a wake-up call—it’s a confirmation that stronger cloud security strategies are essential. With Aviatrix, you get:
- High-performance connectivity with integrated encryption and security
- A platform with robust security, high-performance, and deep visibility features designed to meet the needs of modern cloud environments, whether single, hybrid, or multicloud.
- Security and visibility integrated directly into the network, not added as an afterthought.
- Confidence that your defenses align with both CISA’s guidance and NIST’s frameworks, keeping you ahead of today’s threats and tomorrow’s audits.
Stay Ahead of the Threats with Aviatrix
The Salt Typhoon threat campaign underscores the critical need for a proactive, standards-aligned approach to security. Aviatrix equips GRC teams to build secure, compliant, and scalable cloud environments that align with CISA and NIST recommendations.
Ready to take the next step?
- Explore how Aviatrix’s Secure High-Performance Datacenter Edge solution can protect your cloud environment.
- Learn more about how you can partner with Aviatrix to defend your network against state-sponsored threats like Salt Typhoon.
- Register for our webinar on January 23, “What the Salt Typhoon Hack Reveals About Network Security,” to learn more.