A Look Back at the Top 5 Natto Thoughts Reports in 2025
From attack–defense thinking to vulnerability research and exposed threat actors, we explored key aspects of China’s cyber ecosystem
Natto Thoughts had a great year in 2025, experiencing strong growth in both readership and collaboration. The Natto Team would like to thank our readers for making our in-depth explorations of China’s evolving cyber ecosystem our most-viewed reports of the year. Your support drives our research. We also want to thank Eugenio Benincasa and Dakota Cary for their research collaboration efforts. Three of the top five reports resulted from this partnership.
Collectively, these five reports provide a comprehensive overview of how China has formally institutionalized its cyber capabilities, resulting in a highly effective and state-aligned system—particularly highlighting the integrated role of the private sector.
Here are the highlights from the top 5 reports:
“Defense-Through-Offense Mindset: From a Taiwanese Hacker to the Engine of China’s Cybersecurity Industry“: This report demonstrated how the guiding philosophy, “To defend, one must first know how to attack” (以攻为防), originated in 1990…
