Foreign Adversary Threats Are No Longer Just a Government Problem

For decades, the conventional wisdom held that foreign adversary threats were a government problem — the domain of intelligence agencies, defense contractors, and critical infrastructure operators with classified information worth stealing. That era is over. The threat landscape has fundamentally shifted, and the private sector is now firmly in the crosshairs of nation-state actors from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

The reasons are structural. Modern economies are deeply interconnected. A manufacturing firm that supplies components to a defense contractor becomes a target. A regional hospital that processes data for federal health programs becomes a target. A local government vendor with network access to city systems becomes a target. Foreign adversaries have learned that attacking peripheral organizations is often easier than attacking hardened government networks directly.

How Supply Chain Infiltration Works

The 2020 SolarWinds attack is the canonical example: adversaries compromised a widely used IT management platform and used it as a delivery vehicle to infiltrate thousands of organizations simultaneously, including multiple U.S. federal agencies. The initial breach point was a private software company, not a government network.

This pattern has become the standard playbook. Rather than attacking hardened government systems directly, adversaries identify vendors, contractors, and service providers with trusted access to the ultimate target — and attack them instead. If your organization provides any service to a government agency, healthcare system, or critical infrastructure operator, you are part of a supply chain that nation-state actors actively map and probe.

Influence Operations: A Different Kind of Threat

Beyond network intrusion, foreign adversaries conduct influence operations targeting employees at all levels of organizations. These include false job offers designed to extract proprietary information, social media recruitment of employees with access to sensitive systems, and relationship-building operations that develop over months before any malicious request is made.

These tactics are not science fiction — they are documented in FBI and CISA threat advisories released throughout 2024 and 2025. The United Front Work Department (UFWD), operated by the Chinese Communist Party, specifically targets local government officials, academics, and business leaders through what appear to be legitimate networking and cultural exchange opportunities.

What Every Employee Needs to Know

The frontline defense against both network intrusion and influence operations is a trained workforce. Employees who understand the tactics used by foreign adversaries are significantly harder to compromise. This means knowing what unsolicited job offers and conference invitations from unfamiliar foreign organizations actually look like. It means understanding why you should never accept gifts, travel, or lodging from foreign nationals with unclear affiliations. It means recognizing that relationships built quickly and intensely, especially those that seem to offer unusual access or benefit, warrant scrutiny.

These are not abstract concerns. Texas state law now mandates specific training on foreign adversary awareness for government employees under § 572.070 of the Texas Government Code. The law exists because foreign adversary influence operations targeting Texas officials are documented and ongoing.

Protecting Your Organization

For private sector organizations, the action items are practical. Conduct vendor risk assessments that include questions about foreign ownership and access controls. Train employees on social engineering tactics used by nation-state actors, not just generic phishing. Establish clear procedures for reporting unsolicited contact from foreign nationals offering gifts, travel, or unusual business arrangements. And ensure that anyone with access to sensitive systems or data — especially those who interact with government agencies — has completed current, relevant security awareness training.

Ready to strengthen your team's security awareness? Contact EncryptedTechnology to learn about our training programs.