In the wake of the Salt Typhoon cyber-espionage campaign—which infiltrated over 600 organizations across 80 countries—at least five governments are set to nationalize or impose strict controls on their critical telecom infrastructure, according to Forrester’s Predictions 2026: Cybersecurity and Risk report.
The breach, attributed to nation-state actors, went undetected for years, exposing severe vulnerabilities across global telecom networks and IoT ecosystems. In response, governments are now moving to secure national communications assets with unprecedented oversight.
Australia has reinforced its SOCI Act reforms, mandating direct governmental supervision of telecom systems. Italyannounced a €22 billion restructuring of Telecom Italia’s network, coupled with plans to launch encrypted national satellites for secure communications. Meanwhile, the United States has banned Chinese and Russian ownership of subsea cables and introduced tougher cybersecurity standards to protect critical telecom and satellite infrastructure.
As telecom networks expand into IoT and low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, the attack surface widens dramatically. To adapt, CISOs are urged to adopt continuous monitoring and control frameworks that safeguard interconnected ecosystems.
The message from policymakers is clear: telecom security is now a matter of national sovereignty—and the era of light-touch regulation is over.
