Matt is Chief Strategy Officer for MixMode AI. With over 20 years’ experience in the technology space, Matt has concepted, architected and developed groundbreaking solutions that blend equal parts of technology, product and business.
In December, a senior Chinese cyber official offered what U.S. representatives took as tacit admission: China was behind a series of cyber intrusions targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, this extraordinary moment came during a closed-door meeting in Geneva—one that has since confirmed what many cybersecurity professionals have long suspected: the next stage of overt cyber action might be here.
Beijing’s Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon cyber groups have moved from the shadows into the headlines, exposing the depth of China’s strategic positioning inside our networks and infrastructure, from ports and power grids to telecom backbones. These are not simply acts of espionage; they are acts of preparation.
This moment should prompt more than concern—it should inspire transformation and be seen as the wake-up call the industry needs. The legacy cybersecurity model is a reactive approach focused on compliance, posture management, rules and known signature based detections. While important, it is becoming less capable of keeping up with the accelerating capabilities of adversaries.
We need to shift the conversation from cybersecurity to preemptive cyber defense.
And the latest 2025 Ponemon Institute report on AI in cybersecurity, sponsored by MixMode, provides empirical evidence that organizations still aren’t moving fast enough.
From Confirmation to Action: Why Preemptive Defense Must Replace Reactive Models
The WSJ reporting underscores the chilling reality of nation-state actors reliably gaining access to U.S. infrastructure, not just to gather intelligence but disrupt critical IT and OT systems, and even to prepare for potential kinetic conflict. Volt Typhoon’s objective, as outlined in CISA and NSA alerts, is to quietly embed itself into widespread civilian systems to allow for rapid disruption.
This is where AI-powered cyber defense, and specifically, preemptive AI, must rise to the challenge.
According to the Ponemon study, 43% of organizations now use preemptive AI tools to detect patterns of impending threats. These tools enable organizations to assess emerging risks, identify potential targets, and prevent cyberattacks before they escalate.
Yet 52% of respondents admit that without preemptive AI, cybercriminals, many of whom are now state-sponsored, can direct attacks at unprecedented speed and scale while bypassing traditional, rules-based detection systems.
In other words, legacy systems simply won’t cut it when the stakes are this high.
Out of Date Technology Is Our Weakest Link—And Adversaries Know It
One of the most damning insights from the Ponemon report? Seventy percent of respondents say it’s difficult to integrate AI-based technologies with legacy systems.
This isn’t just a technical headache — it’s a national security threat.
The WSJ reporting drives that point home by highlighting Chinese operations, including the Salt Typhoon telecom breach, capitalized on unencrypted infrastructure and outdated systems. In other words, the very systems lagging to adopt advanced AI-based detection are the ones adversaries are now targeting with precision.
This is where cybersecurity systems fail. The outdated tools of compliance-oriented security architectures simply weren’t built to stop what’s coming. Not to mention, those same legacy systems that are missing AI-powered analytics are the ones hosting some of our most vital data.
The more reliant we are on outdated tech stacks, the more vulnerable we become—not just to phishing and ransomware, but to state-sponsored reconnaissance and long-term disruption planning. Legacy infrastructure is no longer just inefficient; it’s a national security risk.
A New Role for the SOC: From Alert Fatigue to Active Defense
In the face of rising insider threats and coordinated foreign campaigns, SOC teams must evolve from detection centers into defense hubs.
The Ponemon data highlights that 58% of Security Operations Centers (SOCs) now incorporate AI technologies, with primary benefits including:
- Faster alert resolution (57%)
- Analyst bandwidth optimization (55%)
- Real-time threat detection using pattern recognition (50%)
This is critical in a world where threat actors are already inside the network. With Volt Typhoon, for example, adversaries didn’t launch overt attacks; they waited, observed, and positioned.
That’s what makes AI-powered detection so important: the ability to identify subtle, slow-moving anomalies that human analysts or rules-based systems would never catch.
The AI-driven SOC isn’t just more efficient. It enables real-time defense. The kind of defense Volt Typhoon was designed to evade.
We’re at a Cyber Inflection Point
The WSJ’s coverage of China’s acknowledgement is more than a geopolitical revelation—it’s a technical roadmap for the evolution of defensive strategy.
Combined with the Ponemon study, five key takeaways emerge:
- Nation-state threats are not hypothetical. China’s behavior proves they are embedded and active inside our infrastructure.
- Preemptive AI is no longer optional. 52% of experts agree it’s the key to outpacing fast-moving, sophisticated threats.
- Legacy systems are a barrier to national resilience. 70% of organizations cite integration difficulty, while adversaries exploit it.
- AI adoption is improving—but not fast enough. While 53% of organizations are in the full/mature stage of AI deployment, that leaves nearly half exposed.
- SOC evolution is critical. Only 42% of teams are highly prepared to work with AI-powered tools. That must change.
The MixMode Mission: Building Real Cyber Defense
At MixMode, we’ve long recognized that cybersecurity frameworks built for yesterday’s threats cannot stop tomorrow’s attacks. That’s why we’ve pioneered a third-wave, self-supervised AI platform designed to predict, adapt, and defend against what’s next.
Our AI-powered threat detection solution autonomously analyzes behavior across network traffic, continuously learning in real time and discovering indications of active attacks. It doesn’t just send alerts, it provides foresight to stop damage before it’s done.
This is Cyber Defense. And in a world where adversaries like Volt Typhoon are already inside the network, anything less is exposure.
If China’s quiet admission tells us anything, it’s this: cyberwarfare is no longer covert—it’s preparing to come out of the shadows and threaten everyday life. If you’re still using last-generation tools to fight next-generation threats, you’re already behind.
