The Pentagon outfit responsible for preventing foriegn agents from infiltrating defense agencies says the US isn't doing a very good job of preventing state secrets from falling into Chinese hands.

Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Assistant Director of Industrial Security Matthew Redding [1]told attendees at a National Defense Industrial Association event yesterday that China's government and military industrial complex (and the country's allies) keep getting their hands on academic and technology research related to the DoD.

"The homeland is no longer secure," Redding remarked before noting that the DCSA's mission is to prevent those kinds of incidents. The assistant director brought some numbers with him to support his reasoning that the DCSA is essential for national security, disclosing that his group reviews 30,000 suspicious incidents per year, with four to five thousand of those ending up being credible.

[2]

"Today's adversaries do not separate economic competition from national security," DCSA director David Cattler said in a [3]speech last week calling for increased cooperation between government and industry. "They see our intellectual property, supply chains, and workforce as strategic terrain, as valuable as any battlefield."

[4]

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For those unfamiliar with the DCSA, it's the Pentagon subsidiary and investigatory body responsible for vetting the security credentials of federal employees, contractors, academics, and private companies involved in work for the Defense Department. Although undoubtedly a critical mission, DCSA's work alone still hasn't stopped some high-profile leaks to China.

Cattler even mentioned several incidents in his own speech, calling attention to the [6]Volt Typhoon , [7]Salt Typhoon , and suspected Chinese hacks of the [8]US Treasury as instances in which US enemies have managed to infiltrate defense systems. Attacks like those have also targeted major government contractors [9]like Microsoft , and it's not as if the threat is new, either. The international intelligence community has been [10]warning that China [11]targets intellectual property in western nations for years.

[12]Microsoft reportedly cuts China's early access to bug disclosures, PoC exploit code

[13]China's Silk Typhoon, tied to US Treasury break-in, now hammers IT and govt targets

[14]US-funded breakthrough battery tech just simply handed over to China

[15]Putin on the code: DoD reportedly relies on utility written by Russia-based Yandex dev

Along with successfully stealing state secrets directly from the US government, Chinese spies have also been accused of pilfering data from big tech companies [16]like Google . The DCSA is aware that China is going after defense contractors. According to Cattler, one government defense contractor reported to the DoD that it had been dealing with 65,000 phishing attempts every month. And those are just the ones the company identified.

Both Reddig and Cattler called particular attention to insider threats. Cattler noted that, despite DCSA's efforts, these are a growing risk because of increasing interaction between private industry and the defense department.

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"We expect to issue more facility clearances, engage in more personnel vetting and conduct more training," Cattler said.

The director added that he wanted more security services centralized under the DCSA to accomplish its mission.

"Our adversaries are adapting faster than policy," Cattler said. "Cyber-enabled espionage, AI driven targeting and foreign capital exploitation are expanding that threat landscape … we need coherency and alignment between government and industry."

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We asked how DCSA plans to adapt its strategies to increase its chances of success, but didn't immediately hear back. ®

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[1] https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4288124/agency-protects-dod-classified-work-from-adversaries/

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[3] https://www.dcsa.mil/About-Us/News/Article/Article/4283245/dcsa-director-dod-government-industry-and-academia-partnership-with-americas-ga/

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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/12/volt_tyhoon_experience_interview_with_gm/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/china_salt_typhoon_alert/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/31/us_treasury_department_hacked/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/31/infosec_in_brief/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/07/fbi_and_mi5_china_warning/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/18/five_eyes_china_espionage/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/microsoft_cuts_chinas_early_access/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/china_silk_typhoon_update/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/04/doe_battery_tech_china/

[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/popular_nodejs_utility_used_by/

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/07/doj_google_ai_theft_indictment/

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[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/