This is your US-China CyberPulse: Defense Updates podcast.

It’s your favorite cyber sleuth Ting here, and yes, the keyboard is on fire—because the US-China cyber showdown just keeps escalating! The past few days have served up a buffet of new defense strategies, eyebrow-raising policy moves, private sector hustle, and enough international drama to make your VPN sweat. So let’s cut the intro—here’s your CyberPulse download for November 5, 2025.

First up: National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross isn’t just dusting off the security playbook, he’s rewriting the whole darn thing! At his first major public address since confirmation, Cairncross pivoted the country towards more **preemptive cyber defense instead of just absorbing punches from Beijing**. He’s laser-focused on modernizing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which could mean better public-private information flow and less congressional drama holding up funding. Picture this: if Congress can structure cybersecurity funding by actual threat reduction metrics rather than endless debates, our defenses level up and adversaries get a much chillier welcome. Plus, Sean wants US cyber teams collaborating deep with allies—think real-time incident response with Indo-Pacific and European partners via joint threat-hunting ops. Not just talk; we’re seeing more coordinated exercises and a global vulnerability management ecosystem taking shape.

Right as Cairncross tightens defenses, House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino and company fired off a letter demanding the Commerce Department investigate and potentially restrict any Chinese-connected tech crossing US borders—especially in AI, energy, and telecom. According to the letter, “China sees info-tech as a battlefield,” and honestly, with Chinese state-backed cyberattacks up 150% since last year, who can argue? CrowdStrike flagged a 300% spike in Chinese operations against financial services, media, and manufacturing networks. And, to thrill those who like their hacking with a side of cloak and dagger, China-backed actors lurked in a Massachusetts public power utility network for months. Salt Typhoon campaign, anyone?

It isn’t just government swinging the ban hammer—private sector is sprinting ahead too. The DOJ’s Bulk Data Rule, active since April, makes US companies jump through serious hoops to avoid selling sensitive datasets to China. Think: **biometric data, health info, anything a state actor could exploit for espionage or blackmail**. Companies now must check if they’re covered by the rule and amp up cybersecurity just to stay compliant—so your favorite fintech isn’t just thinking growth, it’s thinking firewalls.

Tech-wise, the US is betting big on **AI guardrails**. The White House is rolling back some regulatory barriers to spur innovation and outpace Chinese advances in AI for network defense, autonomous threat detection, and self-healing infrastructure. Imagine AI-driven systems that flag zero-day vulnerabilities before threat actors even brew their morning coffee!

International collaboration is getting meatier. The US is doubling down on strategic dialogue with allies in Europe and Asia, with new track 1.5 dialogues hosted by CSIS fostering cross-border coordination and shared playbooks against nation-state threats. Dr. Victor Cha has been spotlighting the growing coherence among autocracies—Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. All those happy hours with European cyber chiefs? They’re finally producing joint incident response policies and synchronized threat disclosures.

One last spicy twist: amid all this, the Senate is preparing to pass the updated BIOSECURE Act, banning federal purchases of biotech gear from flagged Chinese companies and pushing contractors to clean up entire supply chains. If it passes into law, you’ll see an instant ripple effect through public sector procurement and private sector viability.

That’s the pulse this week, listeners. Thank you for tuning in! Smash that subscribe button if you want more cyber intrigue served Ting-style. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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