Hackers deployed by the China’s Communist regime have carried out a massive cyber attack against the networks of major U.S. broadband providers, “potentially accessing information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
China’s hackers, dubbed “Salt Typhoon,” had access to this trove for months – or longer – penetrating the networks of Verizon, AT&T, Lumen Technologies, and other companies.
The Journal adds:
The surveillance systems believed to be at issue are used to cooperate with requests for domestic information related to criminal and national security investigations. Under federal law, telecommunications and broadband companies must allow authorities to intercept electronic information pursuant to a court order. It couldn’t be determined if systems that support foreign intelligence surveillance were also vulnerable in the breach.
Federal law requires communications service providers to accommodate government requests for wiretaps in the realms of both national security and law-enforcement. The former, especially foreign-intelligence surveillance, is among the most highly classified intelligence gathered by the government; the latter wiretaps are generally reserved for the most sensitive investigations of the FBI and a few other federal agencies – often involving organized-crime syndicates, international drug cartels, and foreign and domestic terrorism. Frequently, both kinds of surveillance involve the government’s most closely held intelligence sources and informants who’ve deeply penetrated ruthless criminal organizations.
The hacking operation is said to have been discovered in recent weeks. It involved a “vast collection of internet traffic” from major providers who service “businesses large and small, and millions of Americans,” the Journal says. It may also have involved a small number of providers outside the U.S.
The regime of Xi Jinping would obviously be interested in a great deal of this information, but of most intense scrutiny would be U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement operations targeting agents of China.
You’ll no doubt be stunned to learn that the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Journal that “China firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cyber theft in all forms.”
The report describes the “widespread compromise” as “potentially catastrophic.” Yep.