China Breaches U.S. Telecom Networks

[Murph]

China Breaches U.S. Telecom Networks

China has breached the innermost workings of more than a dozen U.S. telecommunications systems, including the three largest U.S. carriers, with hackers from a group dubbed Salt Typhoon able to listen in on phone conversations and read text messages. The hack, which was first reported in September, targeted the phones of President-elect Donald Trump and VP-elect Sen. JD Vance when both were still candidates, as well as State Department officials and people working on VP Kamala Harris' campaign.

This story has been somewhat overshadowed since it first began emerging, in part because the details have been coming into focus so haltingly due to the classified nature of much of the information surrounding the hack. But the severity of China's breach cannot be overstated. Even as it has become common knowledge that little in the digital information landscape is truly secure, the level of access that Salt Typhoon gained over the past year with this hack is still a major wake-up call.

Although the Chinese group targeted politicians and national security officials, as well as their staff, they did so through service-providers, meaning millions of U.S. citizens were and are vulnerable to the breach. Encrypted messages were protected, but hackers were still able to gain access to metadata and listen in on phone calls over telephone networks. And while the hackers now appear to have suspended their intrusion in order to hide their full activity, the networks remain compromised.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-breaches-u-s-telecom-networks/ar-AA1uA0l2?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=e8cad4f3420a44d39120f9a3025d2b12&ei=39