On this special edition episode, Lauryn Williams joins Will Todman on the State of Play podcast for a crossover episode of Cache Me If You Can. Cyberattacks targeting water and wastewater utilities have been reported in at least a dozen U.S. states since late July. While there has been no widespread contamination or immediate threat to public drinking water, the attacks appear serious and potentially coordinated. Alongside Nikita Shah, Caitlin Welsh, and Will Todman, Lauryn discusses why U.S. critical infrastructure remains vulnerable, how the United States should respond, and whether there is enough evidence to attribute the attacks to Iran.

In this episode of Cache Me If You Can, we explore why advanced manufacturing has become a cornerstone of U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. As strategic competition with China intensifies and supply chain vulnerabilities become increasingly apparent, the United States faces difficult questions about what it will take to rebuild its industrial base for the twenty-first century. Our guest, Liz Reynolds, Professor of the Practice at MIT and former Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing and Economic Development at the National Economic Council, joins us to discuss Priority Technologies: Ensuring U.S. Security and Shared Prosperity, a new volume examining the technologies that will shape America's future. Drawing from her chapter on advanced manufacturing, Reynolds explains why innovation alone is not enough and why manufacturing capacity, skilled workers, resilient supply chains, and strong institutions all play essential roles in sustaining technological leadership. The conversation examines whether industrial policy can simultaneously strengthen national security and create broadly shared economic opportunity in an era of increasing automation. We discuss the lessons of the CHIPS and Science Act, the evolving relationship between advanced manufacturing and semiconductors, and what success should look like as the United States seeks to rebuild strategically important industries.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we explore one of the most consequential cyber alliances in the Indo-Pacific: cooperation between the United States and the Republic of Korea. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, from state-sponsored operations and ransomware to cryptocurrency theft and attacks on critical infrastructure, both countries are grappling with how to strengthen resilience and move beyond coordination toward deeper operational collaboration. Our guests, Dr. Jim Lewis of CSIS and researchers Sunha Bae and Joohui Park of South Korea's National Security Research Institute (NSR), draw on their expertise in cyber strategy, international law, and critical infrastructure security to examine the evolving threat landscape and the future of allied cyber cooperation. Together, they unpack how North Korea's cyber activities have evolved, the growing challenge of cryptocurrency-enabled illicit finance, and the role cyber operations play in Pyongyang's broader national strategy. We discuss South Korea's emerging approach to active cyber defense, lessons from U.S. concepts such as defend forward and persistent engagement, and the legal and policy considerations that accompany more proactive cyber operations. The conversation also explores how the U.S.–ROK alliance can operationalize cyber cooperation, coordinate responses to shared threats, and work with regional partners to build a more resilient and secure digital environment across the Indo-Pacific.

In this special edition of Cache Me if You Can, we explore the evolving cyber threat landscape facing the United States and what it would actually look like to stand up a dedicated U.S. Cyber Force. As cyberattacks on critical infrastructure become more frequent and sophisticated, questions around how the Pentagon organizes, trains, and equips cyber operators have become increasingly urgent. From state-backed operations like SolarWinds and Salt Typhoon to the rapid rise of AI-enabled cyber capabilities, the current force generation model is being tested by the demands of modern conflict in cyberspace. Guests Dr. Erica Lonergan, Lieutenant General Ed Cardon (Ret.), and Joshua Stiefel join us to discuss why policymakers and military leaders are increasingly examining the possibility of an independent military service dedicated to the cyber domain. Drawing on the work of the CSIS Commission on U.S. Cyber Force Generation, the conversation examines both the strategic need for a Cyber Force and the practical realities of implementing one. The episode explores what a Cyber Force could look like in practice, including its mission scope, personnel structure, institutional alignment within the Department of Defense, and relationship with existing organizations like U.S. Cyber Command. We also discuss how a dedicated cyber service could better recruit and retain top cyber talent while leveraging private-sector innovation and emerging technologies. Finally, we examine what is at stake for the United States as cyber operations become increasingly central to military competition and national security in the digital battlefield.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we explore how cyber conflict and hybrid warfare are reshaping the European security landscape. As Russian operations increasingly blur the line between peace and war, Europe faces mounting pressure to rethink how it approaches deterrence, resilience, and competition in the digital age. Our guest, Dr. Alexander Klimburg, joins us to discuss his recent report, Enter Europe’s Cyber Deterrence, and unpack the evolving nature of Russian hybrid campaigns. We examine how cyber operations, disinformation, sabotage, and information warfare work together to erode political cohesion and apply persistent pressure below the threshold of conventional conflict. The conversation explores Europe’s current response strategy—built around norms, regulation, resilience, and limited punishment—and why these tools may be insufficient against compellence-oriented adversaries. We also discuss the growing uncertainty surrounding long-term U.S. support for European security and what Europe’s dependence on American cyber capabilities means for the future of deterrence. Finally, we examine Klimburg’s proposal for a European Cyber Operations Group (ECOG), a coalition-based model designed to strengthen Europe’s ability to conduct coordinated counter-hybrid operations and operate more effectively in the gray zone.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we examine a core challenge at the heart of U.S. technology competition: the Pentagon’s struggle to procure and field emerging technologies at the speed of innovation. Our guest, Jerry McGinn, joins us to unpack the Department of Defense’s latest push to transform its acquisition system, an effort aimed at accelerating how the military identifies, buys, and deploys capabilities in areas like AI, cyber, and autonomous systems. We explore why traditional procurement processes, built for slow-moving hardware programs, are ill-suited for today’s software-driven technologies, and what that means for U.S. competitiveness. The conversation also breaks down the Pentagon’s proposed reforms, from prioritizing commercial solutions to overhauling regulatory barriers, and assesses whether they can meaningfully close the gap between technological innovation and military deployment. Finally, we examine the broader implications for the defense industrial base, emerging tech companies, and U.S. allies, asking a central question: can the United States adapt its acquisition system fast enough to compete in an era defined by rapid technological change?

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we examine how two of the world’s most influential companies, SpaceX and Huawei, are increasingly shaping the trajectory of global technology competition. Once operating in entirely separate domains, space infrastructure and telecommunications, these firms are now converging across critical frontiers, including AI, connectivity, and data ecosystems. Our guest, Eva Dou, is an award-winning journalist and the author of House of Huawei. Drawing on years of reporting on China’s political economy and technology sector, Eva unpacks how Huawei’s rise and its rivalry with U.S. firms offer a powerful lens into broader geopolitical competition. In this episode, we explore how space-based connectivity is challenging traditional terrestrial networks, why companies like SpaceX may be redefining infrastructure from orbit, and how both firms are becoming central to surveillance and data systems. This episode looks beyond individual companies to ask a bigger question: what do SpaceX and Huawei reveal about how the United States and China build, scale, and compete in the technologies that will define the future?

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we examine Iran’s evolving cyber strategy and what recent activity reveals about the role of cyberspace in modern conflict. While headlines often highlight disruptive attacks and hacktivist activity, the reality of Iran’s cyber operations is more complex—blending state-backed actors, proxy groups, and information campaigns to shape perceptions, signal resolve, and complement activity across other domains. Our guests, Lauryn Williams, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow with the Strategic Technologies Program at CSIS; Dr. Nikita Shah, Senior Fellow with the Intelligence, National Security, and Technology Program at CSIS; and Lieutenant General (Ret.) Maria Barrett, former Commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command, bring deep expertise from government, military, and strategic policy roles. Together, they unpack how Iran calibrates cyber operations alongside information warfare, economic pressure, and geopolitical signaling. We discuss the distinction between high-volume cyber activity and operations that create meaningful strategic effects, including reported attacks on financial systems and the growing use of AI-enabled influence campaigns. The conversation also explores how cyber operations intersect with other tools of statecraft, why cyber activity alone rarely determines the trajectory of conflict, and what indicators may signal escalation in the months ahead.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we explore how artificial intelligence is driving an unprecedented expansion of data center infrastructure. While the cloud era transformed digital services, AI workloads are fundamentally changing how data centers must be designed, powered, and cooled. Our guest, Ty Schmitt, Vice President and Dell Fellow in Dell Technologies’ Infrastructure Solutions Group CTO organization, brings more than three decades of experience in server hardware, thermal design, and data center engineering. Drawing on his work shaping Dell’s data center technology and sustainability strategy, Ty explains why AI infrastructure is scaling so rapidly and what makes it technically different from the cloud systems that came before.   We discuss the engineering challenges behind high-power AI chips, the industry’s shift from air to liquid cooling, and how data center builders are adapting to rising energy demands and community concerns as AI infrastructure expands.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we go beneath the cloud to examine the physical infrastructure powering today’s digital economy: data centers. As demand for cloud services, AI workloads, and high-performance computing accelerates, data centers have become critical national assets—while also emerging as flashpoints for debates over energy use, land, labor, and local governance. Our guest, Chris Kimm, former Senior Vice President at Equinix, brings decades of experience operating and scaling global data center infrastructure at the intersection of technology, customers, and public policy. Drawing on his leadership across data center operations in the Americas and global customer service teams, as well as his time chairing the Data Center Coalition’s Board of Directors, Chris helps unpack how modern data centers work, how they’ve evolved, and why misconceptions about their impact persist. We discuss what actually happens inside a data center, how facilities differ from hyperscale to edge deployments, where innovation is happening most rapidly, and how the industry is responding to mounting energy and sustainability challenges. The conversation also explores why regions like Northern Virginia became data center hubs, what economic benefits these facilities bring to local communities, and how policymakers can better balance growth with public concerns as digital infrastructure continues to expand.