The Cyber Policy Award for Excellence in Journalism has been awarded to The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Krouse, Dustin Volz, Aruna Viswanatha, Robert McMillan, and Drew FitzGerald for reporting on the “Salt Typhoon” cyberespionage campaign.
The award is given by the Institute for Security and Technology in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The awards celebrate excellence in cybersecurity policy and leadership and honored outstanding contributions in categories such as public policy, diplomacy, research, and journalism.
“Salt Typhoon” has been active since 2020 and is a nation-state hacking group based out of China that focuses on espionage and data theft.
The Journal’s reporting uncovered that the hacking infiltrated internet service providers, government employees, unencrypted texts and call logs, among other efforts.
The significance of Salt Typhoon intrusions, the WSJ explained, was the possible threat to “core US infrastructure” and the threat actors could establish “a foothold within the infrastructure of cable and broadband providers that would allow them to access data stored by telecommunications companies or launch a damaging cyberattack.”
