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Wiretap Dance
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese hackers had successfully penetrated the networks of a number of US broadband providers.
Investigators found that the cyber attackers had potential access to a federal government system that's used for court-authorized wiretapping requests — a major national security scandal.
And according to new comments by Senate Intelligence Committee chairman and Virginia senator Mark Warner, the situation is far worse than we thought.
"The barn door is still wide open, or mostly open," he told the New York Times, explaining that the hackers even have access to telephone conversations and text messages.
In short, it's a stunning and reportedly "ongoing" data breach that took advantage of the aging and insecure telecommunications network in the United States.
Data Syphon
The hack has since been linked to a Chinese intelligence-gathering hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon.
According to government officials, the hackers were able to even listen in on conversations involving president-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance.
They exploited out-of-date telecommunications equipment and seams in the infrastructure connecting major networks to a much larger extent than initially feared.
Warner warned that while US officials previously claimed the hackers had disappeared with no trace, there's a good chance they're still listening in on phone conversations and reading text messages.
"We’ve not found everywhere they are," he told the NYT.
Even considering previous infiltrations by Chinese hackers, the latest stunt is particularly egregious.
"This is far and away the most serious telecom hack in our history," Warner told the NYT. "This makes Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds look like small potatoes," he said, referring to two major Russian state-backed intrusions targeting the US in 2021 and 2019 respectively.
Fortunately, encrypted messages being exchanged on platforms like WhatsApp, Signal or Apple's iMessage network were off-limits for the Chinese hackers. Other messages being exchanged between iPhones and Android phones, however, were fair game, as were phone calls over ordinary networks.
The hackers' primary targets were national security officials and politicians, according to investigators. As the Washington Post reports, around 150 victims, most of whom reside in the Washington DC area, have been notified about breaches by the FBI.
Meanwhile, Trump's pick for the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr revealed that he was already briefed on the Salt Typhoon hack and has vowed to hit the ground running.
"Cybersecurity is going to be an incredibly important issue," he told reporters, as quoted by WaPo. "National security is going to be a top priority."
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