The American government and private sector have essentially failed to respond to China’s Salt Typhoon penetration of U.S. telecommunications systems, including those of AT&T and Verizon. They used Cisco routers to get inside. One key problem is that the private sector does not want to spend billions of dollars on building systems that are truly secure. They would rather operate systems they know have been penetrated. In our pluralistic society, the government cannot force the private sector to spend money to protect its own assets. And so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut used to write.
