Nation-State Hackers Hit Businesses for Commercial Edge

February 19, 2026 – Published on The Wall Street Journal

With all eyes on safeguarding U.S. infrastructure, the nation’s top cyber adversaries are increasingly targeting companies to pinch trade secrets, aiming to give their own industries a competitive edge in global markets.

State-sponsored hackers are accessing corporate systems to steal intellectual property, research and development, proprietary technology and other business assets to drive economic growth back home.

The attacks, which can include supply-chain disruptions, are taking aim at companies across sectors, including energy, technology—especially artificial intelligence developers—autonomous vehicles, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and others. In some cases, state-sponsored hackers are gathering U.S. government intelligence ahead of high-level trade talks to gain an advantage in negotiations.

Mark Lance, senior vice president of digital forensics and incident response and threat intelligence at GuidePoint Security, said ransomware and phishing attacks draw widespread attention due to their broad impact across sectors. That can overshadow the activity of Advanced Persistent Threats, or APTs, which are stealthier, long-term data-theft attacks often carried out by nation states.

“Unlike opportunistic cybercriminals seeking immediate financial gain, APT groups are commonly highly sophisticated, typically state sponsored actors from countries like China, Russia and Iran,” Lance said.

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