Foreign entities continue to target U.S. government partners to access classified technologies.
According to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, electronics, software, and command, control, communication and computers are the top three most targeted Industrial Base Technologies in 2022.
DCSA published the most recent version of its Targeting U.S. Technologies report, which provides information on foreign intelligence entity efforts to compromise and exploit cleared personnel and obtain classified data from cleared organizations, including industry and academia.
The agency shared that it received and reviewed over 26,000 suspicious contact reports from cleared contractor facilities, an 8 percent year-over-year increase.
It found East Asia, the Pacific and Near East regions as “the most significant collectors of classified U.S. information and technology,” accounting for 62 percent of all SCRs. In particular, foreign entities are specifically targeting artificial intelligence software, satellite communications, export-controlled microelectronics and quantum technologies.
While cyber operations remain a threat to industry networks, résumé submission was the top method malicious actors used to gain entry to classified information and technologies.
“Government and industry must fully cooperate if we are to successfully defend against adversaries who are gaining an advantage by exploiting our free and open society,” said William Lietzau, then-outgoing director of DCSA.