US Navy plans to secure internet communications in Guam

According to a variety of U.S. media reports, mobile carrier Cape has secured a pilot project with the U.S. Navy, to secure communications in Guam.

Cape announced on April 18 it has raised $61 million in financing, ahead of its official launch in June.

“Cape will use the capital to build a nationwide mobile network that provides premium wireless coverage which, unlike traditional carriers, masks personal identifying information like names, numbers, and locations,” according to a release on Business Wire.

The Arlington, Va.-headquartered company also provides spam protection, it says on its site, mitigating SIM swap attacks like password stuffing and phishing emails and closing off “a main conduit for social engineering and imposter scams.”  

Founded in 2022, Cape is currently operating in early-access mode, though it does have a waiting list on its site.  Cape partners include public, private, and academic research institutions.
Microsoft said in May 2023 it had “uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States,” saying the attack was carried out by Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering.”

Microsoft said at the time, “Volt Typhoon has been active since mid-2021 and has targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the United States. In this campaign, the affected organizations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors.”

Microsoft said although it was able to detect threats to its customers, “… the lack of visibility into other parts of the actor’s activity compelled us to drive broader community awareness and further investigations and protections across the security ecosystem.”

More than 2.6 billion personal records were breached in 2021 and 2022 (1.1 billion in 2021 and 1.5 billion in 2022), according to the Harvard Business Review. In the first eight months of 2023 more than 360 million people were victims of corporate and institutional data breaches; 98% of organizations have a relationship with a vendor that experienced a data breach within the last two years, according to the Harvard Business Review. mbj